


Monster Prom Plays: Trivia Murder Party

by Lord_Tenebros



Category: Monster Prom (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Monsters just having a good time, Oz as the TMP Host, Oz is either a great actor or has multiple personalities, Trivia Murder Party is just pure awesome, spoilers for some secret endings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-01-21 07:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21295874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Tenebros/pseuds/Lord_Tenebros
Summary: Monster Prom has come and gone, and our favorite Color Squad and their love interests decide to all hang out together at the Color Squad’s house. While they are playing some games and generally having a good time, Vicky accidentally lets slip about how Oz is the best roleplayer she has ever seen for the host of a certain game involving trivia and murder. Thoroughly interested, the monsters call for Oz to show them the acting that is being so highly praised by one of his closest friends. Relenting, Oz takes them all over to his home dimension, where his will is law…and shows his best friends’ love interests a whole new side to him that they’ll never forget. All in the name of good fun, of course! And fear, can’t forget the fear.Featuring Oz as the Trivia Murder Party host.
Relationships: Blue | Vicky/Damien LaVey, Green | Brian/Liam de Lioncourt, Vera Oberlin & Red | Amira, Yellow | Oz/Z'gord | Zoe
Comments: 23
Kudos: 111





	1. Into the Dark Dimension

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first time writing a Monster Prom fic, and I hope I do a decent job at it! I only discovered it recently but I’ve fallen in love with the game and its many characters, and I’ll do my best to do justice to their portrayals in the game.  
I was originally going to write a serious, insightful, and hopefully heartwarming Zoe x Oz fic dealing with certain secret endings…but then I decided to write what’s basically a pile of crack instead XD. Spoilers should be minimal but I 'm going to mention them in the tags and right now just to be safe.
> 
> The pairings for this fic will be:  
Oz x Zoe (IDENTITY ending)  
Amira x Vera Oberlin  
Brian x Liam de Lioncourt  
Vicky x Damien LaVey (HAIR ending)
> 
> NOTE: I’m assuming that there is SOME cultural connection between the human and monster worlds, and that the monsters have SOME awareness of human culture overall.

Two months had passed since Monster Prom, and the four monsters that all of Spooky High had collectively dubbed the “Color Squad” couldn’t be any happier. All of them had tried their hardest to win a date for prom and find love, and against all odds, all of them had succeeded.

Vicky, the adorable and kindhearted Frankengirl, had won over the heart of hotheaded demon prince Damien LaVey not by encouraging him to commit acts of arson and violence as one might expect, but by helping him to achieve his long-desired dream of becoming a hair stylist and opening up the heart of gold that lay buried within the demon’s fiery exterior. Brian, a seemingly lazy zombie who took the world in stride, was now the romantic partner of hipster vampire Liam de Lioncourt. Brian’s apathetic exterior masked a brilliant and artistic mind that completely took Liam by surprise, and after fully appreciating the zombie’s hidden genius Liam could finally say that he had found his intellectual equal, one who wouldn’t fade away to the sands of time as so many others in his life had. Amira, the energetic and confident fire djinn, had stirred up a romance with the gorgeous and devious gorgon Vera Oberlin, of all people. Amira’s cunning intellect and no-nonsense attitude had thoroughly impressed Vera, proving invaluable to the success of the gorgon’s schemes and plots many times over. By the time prom rolled around, Vera had come to value Amira as both a lover and her advisor, an absolutely essential part of her life in both aspects.

And Oz, a shadowy being who was way too lovable, shy, and good-natured for the literal embodiment of Fear, had found true love in former eldritch horror and now eldritch cutie Zoe. Unlike the other pairs, Oz and Zoe had gravitated towards each other almost immediately, sensing a kindred spirit in the other and instantly becoming close friends. Though they both shared an interest in fanfics, fictional worlds, and other creative exercises, their relationship ran far deeper than that. It had been Oz who had released Zoe from her totem and convinced her that there was far more that she could enjoy in her life than being an angry, malevolent dark deity, and Oz who had guided her through life at Spooky High once she had decided to become a regular high school girl. When others questioned or even harassed Zoe about her former existence as Z’Gord, Oz was always one of the first to defend and explain her choices, helping himself overcome his stuttering and excessive anxiety in the process, while others like Damien and Vera dealt with the asinine critics like Leonard in a more direct way. By the time prom rolled around, Zoe and Oz had fallen completely in love with each other, and Zoe would forever be grateful to Oz for everything he had done to make her decision to become a high school girl the best that it could possibly be.

These eight monsters had found the one person they never knew they needed to complete each other’s lives…and all of them were now spending the day in the Color Squad’s collective house. Instead of engaging in the absolute mayhem that normally defined a place like Spooky High that was a volatile collection of hormonal monsters, they had decided to take things easy and relax, enjoying the company of their loved ones as they all played video games together…almost like a normal group of high schoolers.

“Come on, Damien!” Vicky cheered as her boyfriend eyed the TV screen intently. He was 8 spaces away from the star, while Vera and Liam were only 3 and 5 spaces away. “You can do it!”

Damien hit the controller…and rolled a 9. “Fucking METAL!” he shouted, pumping his fist in the air with glee as Waluigi strutted forward and right past Vera, claiming the star for himself. 

Vicky cheered and kissed her boyfriend on the cheek as Vera and Liam both groaned at the lost opportunity.

“Ugh!” the gorgon snarled in disgust. “Of course he gets the roll he needs. Why would I expect anything else?”

“Luck playing a bigger factor over skill in a game of Mario Party?” Liam scoffed as Brian pat his back comfortingly. “So mainstream.”

“Don’t you worry, Vera,” Amira assured her with a grin. “You’ve still got more than enough time to show them what you’re made of!”

Vera smirked back. “Right you are, Amira. Enjoy your little victory while you can, Damien. The moment I get 50 coins, that star is mine!”

Zoe turned her head to look at Oz and rolled her many eyes. “These guys are so competitive, aren’t they?” she asked. “Meanwhile I’m just sitting back here and having a good time.”

“No kidding,” Oz replied. “But that’s Damien and Vera for you. They don’t do anything by half.”

“Hey noob, you know what I say,” Damien called back to him. “If you’re not gonna go all out, might as well not do it at all.”

“Like class?” Brian asked, causing everyone to snicker. It was a running joke at Spooky High that going to class really didn’t actually matter in the slightest. Pretty much everyone graduated as long as you didn’t die and weren’t a complete imbecile. The fact that the Color Squad all had high SMARTS despite barely going to class and did just fine on their tests was proof enough for that.

“So what are we doing after this game?” Zoe wondered as Vera rubbed a magic lamp to take her to the next star. “Anybody up for some Jackbox Games? Say what you want about humans, but they do know how to make some good quality games.”

“Yes, yes, YES!” Vicky cheered eagerly. “I love Jackbox Games! ESPECIALLY Trivia Murder Party!” She whirled around to face Brian, Amira, and Zoe. “Hey guys, remember when Oz took us into his dimension and we all played Trivia Murder Party IRL with Oz roleplaying as the TMP host? That was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done outside of prom!”

The Frankengirl immediately realized she had made a mistake when Amira and Brian both smacked their hands onto their foreheads and Oz let out a loud groan as Zoe just shook her head in disappointment. “Vickyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!” Oz whined. “You weren’t supposed to tell anyone about that!”

“Oh my God, Oz, I’m so sorry!” Vicky quickly apologized.

“Ahem,” Vera raised her hand to silence them while her snakes hissed a warning towards anyone who dared to challenge her interruption. “I’ve actually seen my sister play this game before. And you’re telling me that Oz not only acted as a serial killer host for that game, but did so effectively and convincingly?”

“This sees completely out of the ordinary from everything we could have expected from our resident fearling,” Liam commented as he put down his controller. “You have my immediate and undivided attention.”

“I was down the moment I heard the word murder,” Damien added. He lightly punched Oz’s shoulder with a grin on his face. “C’mon, noob. Show us what you can really do!”

“C’mon, Oz…” Zoe looked up at her boyfriend with that winning smile that always caused him to blush. “It would be fun having more people around to play! Please?”

Oz squirmed under the expectant looks from his friends. Even after his relationship with Zoe had boosted his confidence, he was still uncomfortable with being put in the spotlight. “O-only cause you asked, Zoe!” he conceded.

Zoe squealed in delight and kissed Oz on the cheek as the others looked at each other and grinned in anticipation. “Oh, this is so cool!” she exclaimed. “You can finally show them that dimension of darkness that you rule over!”

“Wait, wha…?” Damien started, but before he could say anything more Oz snapped his fingers. His eyes glowed intensely for a brief moment, and a swirling portal leading to pure darkness tore itself into existence in front of the doorway leading to the kitchen.

“Oh, hold on!” Oz’s eyes flashed, and everyone in the room suddenly saw a white aura flicker and glow around their bodies. “Just a quick spell to protect your minds from being violently shredded by the dark powers of pure terror and going completely insane,” he explained.

“…thanks for NOT forgetting that,” Vera drawled.

“Once we’re inside, follow me in and do NOT wander off by yourself,” Oz warned. “The shadowy monsters made of nightmares and terror won’t attack you if they know you’re my friends, but I can’t keep you safe if you decide to go exploring for whatever reason.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “As if anybody here would be stupid enough to wander off in a dark dimension of horrors on his or her lonesome,” he commented dryly. Still, all of them took Oz’s instructions seriously as they followed him into the black void. The moment they stepped into the dimension of darkness that Oz had described, all of them immediately began to feel the stirrings of dread and panic as they felt the dimension’s unnatural atmosphere push on their minds. But they had a naturally strong will to push back, and with the protection provided by Oz’s spell the pressure on their minds faded away into a feeling of unease that faintly lingered in the back of their minds.

“O-oh, right,” Oz smacked his forehead. “I forgot to actually set up the atmosphere where we’re going to be playing.” He snapped his fingers, and the shadows seemed to swirl and writhe at his command, coming together to create…something. The Color Squad and Zoe had already seen something similar before so they watched only with mild interest, but Liam, Damien, and Vera stared in openmouthed shock as the shadows coalesced into the shape of a mansion-sized, old-fashioned and dilapidated hotel that looked as though it had come straight out of a horror story. As soon as Oz finished creating the structure, eldritch lightning flashed in the distance, and the main entrance doors of the hotel swung open, leaving only blackness inside.

Zoe squealed. “God, I love it when Ozzy makes power plays like this!” she exclaimed. “I always knew he had these super cool powers he was hiding like in my fanfics, and seeing them in action for the first time was like a dream come true!”

“Damn…” Damien whistled. “Why don’t you do shit like this back at school? Maybe you could make some buildings for me to set on fire whenever I get bored as fuck,” he smirked.

“Can’t,” Oz shook his head. “It only works cause this is my dimension. There’s a couple of things I can do back in our plane and a lot more that I can’t. Creating buildings like this out of shadows is one of those things that I can’t.” He looked over at the open entrance. “All right, in you guys go.”

Vera, Liam, and Damien looked uncertainly at the blackness within. “You are…sure of this…yes?” Vera asked with more than a hint of wariness in her tone.

Amira rolled her eyes. “Pffffft, it’s fine, Vera. Don’t tell me that a friendly little game is going to be the first thing in your life that you bitch out on!”

Vera’s eyes flashed at her girlfriend’s challenge. “Not a chance, hot stuff!” she shot back. With her head up high, she marched forward and into the darkness of the hotel.

“Ugh…of course she just marches right in,” Liam muttered. “Then again, I’m surprised Damien wasn’t the first one to charge headfirst without thinking of the consequences.”

Damien’s eyes widened. “Oh crap, I’m not the first one to charge headfirst without thinking of the consequences!” he exclaimed. He ran in after Vera, causing the vampire to just stare after his two friends in disbelief.

“Why do I even bother…” Liam sighed as he followed them at a slower pace, determined not to make a fool of himself in front of his boyfriend and his friends. Zoe and the Color Squad watched their romantic partners enter the hotel, turned to face each other, and shrugged.

“Let’s do this, guys!” Vicky declared cheerfully. The five friends high-fived and walked in together, all of them eager to revisit a game that had been such an unexpected delight for them to play. The moment they stepped past the threshold, the hotel doors closed behind them and locked themselves, sealing them all inside and plunging them into complete blackness.

“I can’t see shit,” Damien muttered under his breath.

“Wait for it,” Brian replied, a hint of anticipation in the zombie’s voice.

“Showtime, Oz!” Zoe cheerfully called out.

There was no verbal response, but a giant screen similar in size to the screen of a movie theater suddenly flickered to life in front of and above them. The monsters looked up at as ominous music began to permeate into the darkness. The screen immediately turned black except for the phrase “A Jackbox Games production, adapted by Oz” written in white in the very center. The letters vanished, and an image of Spooky High from the outside in the dark of the night appeared, though the building long abandoned and fallen into a state of severe disrepair.

“Seeing our school looking like that is more than a little jarring…” Liam muttered.

The image disappeared, replaced by a phrase, “starring Zoe” with a plushie of the eldritch cutie directly underneath it. Everyone who hadn’t seen it already was taken aback by the extreme level of detail that had gone into the plushie, as it looked almost exactly like her with even some attention to the accurate placement of her secondary mouths and eyes.

“I wanted that plushie when I first saw it, and I still want it now!” Zoe sighed as she looked longingly at it with her many eyes.

Another image appeared, this time showing the hallways of Spooky High. Just like the outside, the inside of the school was abandoned and in ruin, with locker doors hanging open and papers strewn aimlessly onto the ground.

“Does Oz secretly have plans to take over the school or something?” Amira joked.

The image vanished again, replaced by plushies of Vera and Amira that looked just as detailed as Zoe’s had been.

Vera grinned at her girlfriend. “The ultimate power couple,” she boasted proudly.

“Hell to the yeah!” Amira pounded her girlfriend’s fist.

The screen returned to the school’s bathrooms, which were just as run-down and ruined as the rest of the school. At first, the monsters didn’t expect anything to be different, until the bathrooms suddenly caught on fire, plunging the entire structure into a roaring inferno. The building crumbled into barren ashes and the vision vanished as the flames died down, to be replaced by plushies of Vicky and Damien.

Damien smirked at his girlfriend. “So, just another Thursday evening at Spooky High, right babe?”

Vicky punched her boyfriend’s elbow lightly. “Behave!” she scolded, though she was trying and failing to hide a grin of her own.

The next image to appear was the library. The state of disrepair here was even more pronounced than the other rooms, mainly because of the books. Some were lying on the shelves, gathering dust and covered with spider webs. Others had been tossed onto the floor, pages torn out and trampled. One particularly striking and odd detail were the computers, their screens frenziedly flickering on and off. The library disappeared, replaced with plushies of Brian and Liam.

“I must confessed, as cliché as plushies of ourselves is as a concept, there is a certain…charm to them,” Liam admitted.

“I’d snuggle up to a plushie of Liam,” Brian replied, his mouth stretching into the familiar half-smile half-grin that only he could make charming.

The plushies vanished once more, and the image of a head appeared on the black screen. A head covered entirely in shadows and darkness, with the flames burning around it and menacing red eyes glowing out of the shadows. Vera, Damien, and Liam stared at the head in stunned disbelief, and even the Color Squad couldn’t help but feel a faint shiver of fear. The only one who seemed totally unaffected was Zoe, who merely found this glimpse into Oz’s darker nature sexy instead.

“Is…is that…?” Vera asked, but before he could finish the question, the image suddenly vanished. A terrified scream echoed around them, and the giant words **“TRIVIA MURDER PARTY”** flashed onto the screen.

“WOO, GO OZ!!!” Zoe cheered as she lifted her tentacle and a fist into the air.

The words vanished, and unholy, nightmarish laughter suddenly started echoing around them from everywhere and nowhere all at once. **“H̨̙EH̫͓̲̪ ͡H̱̠͙̗̞̩̘E̸̟͍̦̘̞̟̺Ḩ ̡̖͓̪̯̯H̹̬͉̼̭͔EH̤̠͟ ̨H̟̤̟͎͈̭EH̪̟̦͍̻̫͙͘ ̟̗̗H̼̝̳̟̣̘E̪̠̤̙̺̲ͅH͚̜̱̹̯ͅ ͉̜̖͓͉H̰̰͙̫͠E̪̫̦̝̞̭̟H̪̖͇̼͓ ̩͙̕H̢̬̪͉̯̜̮E̶̬̥ͅH͢ ̹Ḥ̵̟̻̮̝̳̣A ̟̪H҉̣͚̦A̪̭̤̞̗̻ ͇̞͞Ḫ̫A̗̗͍͉̪͙̖ ̨̪̦̩̫̙̻̝H̭A͡ ̛͔͓H͝A̝ ̬̜̹̰ͅͅHA̼̬̤͙̭̖ ̖͎̪̗̳̹H͔A̭̯͞ ̼̭̻̟͍̦͎H̼̘̺̰̗A̡̹̖ ̩̼͉H̴͔͇̙̦̣͈̻A̳̬̞̯͖̲!҉̪̘͇͖̩͚!!̩͙͕̬̗̝̺!̜̬͉̠͢!̶͎ͅ”**

/

A/N: And there’s a good place to stop for now, I think. 😊 As you can probably tell, Oz will have a VERY different personality for this fic than what you’ll normally be used to from him. After all, he wouldn’t be a very good TMP host if he kept stuttering all the time.

I originally had this fic written up as one whole chapter, but when I started getting onto page 15 without even finishing half of the first round I figured I should PROBABLY start splitting it up to keep people from being overwhelmed.

I hope I stayed true to the characters and didn’t write any of them in a particularly OOC way. I know it’s a bit harder to gauge the personalities of the PCs since they don’t have any extensive dialogue in Monster Prom but I wrote them based on what I think would best fit their characters.

I will probably write two rounds of TMP, and either have the normal and final rounds as either separate chapters or one whole chapter depending on the length.

I hope you guys enjoyed!


	2. Round 1, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it’s time for the fun to begin! The way I have this planned so far, there will be two rounds, and each round will have different questions and minigames to keep things fresh and interesting.

The laughter was so menacing and unexpected from the normally shy and quiet Oz that Vera, Damien, and Liam all jolted upon hearing it.

“What the fu…!” Damien muttered.

**“FINALLY!” **the voice boomed around them. The tone of the voice had all the qualities that nobody who had only superficially met Oz had expected of him: confident, menacing, ready to take on the world, even scary. And yet, underneath the radical changes in personality, the thunderous volume, and the eldritch echoes, the voice was still unmistakably Oz’s at its very core. **“I’ve been pretending to be a whiny little bitch for years, trolling you all and trying to see how long it would take for somebody to realize that there’s no way that the literal embodiment of Fear itself would be such a giant chickenshit. Apparently I’m such a good actor that not even the smart ones figured out I was bullshitting the entire time. That or you’re all just a bunch of morons.”**

“Ozzy!” Vicky scolded as Damien, Liam, and Vera continued to stare numbly into the darkness, still trying to process the dramatic reversal of Oz’s character. “Be nice! And start the game already!”

**“Oh yeah, we’re here to play a game, aren’t we?” **The lights suddenly came back on, revealing a wide hallway with closed hotel room doors on each side. **“Welcome to my recreation of the Murder Hotel, formed from my own twisted imagination and the powers of darkness itself. Had to build this hotel on the fly and didn’t really think about the details, so there’s a chance that each room is actually filled with dark horrors that hunger for your bodies, minds, and souls. I’d give it 50:50 odds!”**

Zoe’s eyes lit up and she grinned. “Oh, I remember seeing a few of those when I visited your dimension last time, Oz!” she cooed. “They were like little puppies. Soooooooooooo cute!”

“I somehow doubt that a non-eldritch being would agree with your assessment,” Liam dryly replied.

“Am I the only one who’s wondering how we’re already in the inner hallways of a hotel despite the fact that we just entered the hotel’s main entrance a few seconds ago?” Vera commented in a deadpan tone.

Amira shook her head. “Eldritch locations, Vera. Try not to think about it too much.”

**“Ahem…” **Oz’s voice interrupted. **“Anyway…”** Several giant pictures appeared in front of the group of friends, though not as large as the screen from earlier. The first picture was of a line of four plushies representing the Color Squad and Zoe with a trivia question and 4 answer choices written underneath them.

**“I’m going to ask you a bunch of trivia questions. If you get a question wrong,” **Oz explained as he flipped to the next picture, showing just the correct answer. Two of the plushies had green check marks underneath them, while two of them had red X’s marked overhead. **“you’ll have to fight for your life in a super fun minigame!” **The next picture flipped up, revealing the two plushies with incorrect answers from earlier and what looked like a typewriter on the ground,** “If you fail the minigame,” **the next picture flipped up, revealing a plushie that had a white X scratched onto its belly…and had been sliced in half. To drive the point home, his next words were spoken in a menacing growl, **“…I’LL KILL YOU. But don’t worry!”** His tone immediately reverted to its morbidly cheerful inflection. **“Ghosts can not only keep playing, but even flat-out win the whole game! When we have one person left alive, we’ll go to the final round, where you’ll have to fight for your life to be the first person to escape. Only one of you can win, and only one of you will live. I won’t reveal any more details to you right now because spoilers.”**

“…why is MY plushie the one that always get sliced in half in this tutorial?” Brian grumbled.

The pictures vanished, and a row of the exact same seven plushies that had been shown in the intro sequence appeared in the sky above them. From left to right, they had been arranged: Zoe, Amira, Vera, Brian, Liam, Vicky, Damien. The shadows coalesced again in front of the seven monsters, turning into black smartphones.

“I presume we’re meant to be answering the questions with these devices?” Liam asked.

“Yep!” Vicky confirmed. “Don’t worry, it’ll be real simple once we get started.”

**“Let’s start with something easy, just to get you into the swing of things.”**

A giant number 1 that glowed with purple flames appeared and vanished almost as quickly.

**“Wine coolers are a combination of wine and which beverage?”**

  1. Fruit juice
  2. Ice tea
  3. Soda water
  4. Gin

The question and answers appeared both in large letters in the hallway in front of them…and on the smartphones Oz had made for his friends. A timer also appeared, showing 15 seconds and already counting down. **“Use the screen to answer the question by pressing on an answer choice.”**

Liam scoffed. “Are you joking? A question this elementary is borderline insulting!”

“Pretty sure we had one last Saturday at Polly’s latest party,” Damien pointed out.

“And to think that I was actually remotely worried for a moment,” Vera sneered.

“C’mon, Oz!” Amira shook her head melodramatically. “You’ve got to do better than that!”

The monsters clicked on their answers, and the moment the last one did the timer vanished. **“Who got the question right?”**

  1. **Fruit juice**

A green check mark appeared under every single plushie, the symbol quickly turning into $1000 before fading away. “Yay!” Vicky cheered. “Got it right!”

“Hell yeah, babe!” Damien high-fived the Frankengirl. “Off to a good start!”

**“…well fuck,” **Oz’s voice muttered, sounding disappointed. **“That was a little TOO easy. Next question.”**

A giant number 2 appeared and disappeared, followed by:

**“Which of these pies does NOT contain animal flesh?”**

  1. Cumberland pie
  2. Scotch pie
  3. Chess pie
  4. Shepherd’s Pie

This time, there was a LOT less confidence from the monsters in their ability to answer the question. “The fuck?” Amira asked incredulously. “These are actual pies?”

“I didn’t know those types of pies even existed!” Zoe exclaimed. “All I’ve had since I became a high school girl was fruit pies!”

“This is going to suck…” Brian muttered.

He reluctantly clicked on an answer, the last one to do so. **“Who said…”**

** 3) Chess pie**

This time, only Liam and Damien got the question correct. As for Zoe, Amira, Vera, Brian, and Vicky…

A blood red **X **appeared over the plushies’ heads, and all five of them knew right away that they were in trouble.

**“And it looks like we have our first potential losers of the evening. Let’s go do something fun…” **Oz’s voice dripped with sadistic amusement, sending a chill down everyone’s spine. The plushies immediately vanished, and they felt themselves being pulled down the hallway into darkness. When the lights returned, they were in one of the hotel rooms, a barren place with no furniture except for a rocking chair covered in cobwebs.

**“Welcome to the Killing Room! We’re in Room 108, with complimentary Doom Service!” **Oz mockingly greeted them as a projectile screen flashed in front of them, and the monsters saw a hand made of pure darkness move the word **“DICTATION” **onto it.** “Today, we are going to be conducting an exercise in the lost art of letter writing.”**

There was a flash of eldritch lightning, and a typewriter appeared in the center of the room. The plushies of the five monsters who had failed also materialized in the room in front of and above them. **“I’m going to dictate a message to you. Write down as much of what I say as you can. Whoever writes the fewest of my words…WILL DIE.” **Oz’s voice descended into a snarl, startling everyone.

**“And starting letter in 3…2…1…”**

**“Dear Principal Giant Spider,**

**With all due respect, I must protest the ban on blood rituals. Blood rituals can be so incredibly useful for so many different things. Why, just the other day, I spilled the blood of a bigot deadnaming my girlfriend and used the power I gained from that ritual to fight the giant kraken that somehow invaded Monstropolis’ sewer system. If I didn’t use that ritual, I would’ve had to drown a hundred monsters in nightmares just so I could feed on their fear to fight that kraken.**

**Oh, and before you ask, no, the asshole was not Leonard. No matter how much I wish it was.”**

**“Time’s up.”**

The monsters scrambled to get the last few words in, when the text box and keyboard they were typing with suddenly vanished.

“I never knew Oz had an interest in blood rituals,” Vera commented with a raised eyebrow. “I must say that I quite approve.”

“Oz fought a kraken in the sewers?” Damien asked incredulously. “Dude, that’s metal as fuck! How come I haven’t heard about this?”

“Guys, I’m pretty sure Oz was just making stuff up for the letter,” Vicky pointed out.

“Well, even if he made up the details, I do agree with the overall premise,” Vera muttered.

**“All right,” **Oz interrupted them, **“let me just give all of this a quick once-over, and let’s see how you did.”**

Numbers began to appear under each plushie.

Zoe: 53

Amira: 44

Vera: 46

Brian: 38

Vicky: 35

The 35 under Vicky’s plushie suddenly turned blood red. “Awwwww!!!!” Vicky groaned in disappointment. “I started fat-fingering in the middle of typing the letter and it all went to crap!”

Damien wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “S’okay, babe,” he assured her.

**“Thank God none of you ever got into the typewriting business, because what one of you wrote was objective trash,” **Oz drawled.

A hotel memo letter suddenly appeared in front of them. “Dear principels giant spider with all duersepect I must protestst the ban on blood ritiuals. Blood rituals can be used for so many differen things. Why just the other day I spilled the bdlood of a bigot deadsnaming my ggurlfriend and OH GOD I DON’T EVEN AGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Vicky flushed with embarrassment. “I, uh…I kinda had a mental breakdown.”

Amira raised an eyebrow. “What really gets me is the fact that you actually typed your mental breakdown out on the letter,” she pointed out.

**“I mean seriously,” **Oz continued, **“what in the actual fuck is this nonsense? I could’ve done a better job if I smashed Leonard’s head on a typewriter over and over again!”**

Zoe grinned. “I am definitely going to write that idea in my next Spooky High-based fanfic.”

A giant red F was stamped onto the letter by an unseen force as a white X scratched itself onto Vicky’s plushie. “NOOOOOOOO!!!!” Vicky cried out dramatically as the plushie of herself was thrown into sharp focus and a scream bellowed out. The Frankengirl could only watch as her plushie suddenly exploded with a strangled yell, and a ghostly figure took its place. The shape of the plushie was still unmistakably Vicky’s, but it was now hollow and transparent, showing a clearly visible skeleton on it with Xs over its eyes.

“Wow…” Damien stared at the ghost as the background around them faded to black. “You just blew up a plushie of my girlfriend. I don’t know whether to be impressed or pissed as hell.”

“Oh, well…” Vicky sighed. “At least I can still try to kill other people!”

**“And it looks like we have our first death, ladies and gentlemen!” **Oz called out as the light slowly returned, revealing that they were all in an old-fashioned elevator of some kind. He brought up all the plushies in front of them, Vicky’s plushie mixed in with the still living ones. The word “Scoreboard” flickered into existence, and the monsters could see how much money they’d won. Damien and Liam both had $2000, while the rest only had $1000 from getting the first question **“I know it’s rough that you got killed first, but like I said, this game isn’t close to being done yet! You can absolutely still win the game!”**

The elevator doors swung open, revealing a hallway with slightly different decorations but otherwise identical to the one they had been in before. A giant 3 made of purple flames flickered into existence and then vanished. **“Because I know you fuckers don’t bother reading anything they give us in class, let alone anything written by humans…”**

**“What letter did author Vincent Wright never use in his 5,000 word novel _Gadsby_?”**

  1. U
  2. D
  3. I
  4. E

“Uh…uh…uh…WHAT?” Amira spluttered.

“The hell is _Gadsby?_” Damien exclaimed.

“How the hell would any of us know this?” Vera growled.

“Ughhhh….” Brian groaned as he randomly picked an answer.

**“And the correct answer is…”**

** 4) E**

The group of friends all let out exclamations of dismay as a red X appeared over _every single plushie_.

“The FUCK?” Vera exclaimed, her calm composure slipping. “No E?”

“So apparently this guy never used the word THE in his 5000 word novel!” Zoe commented in disbelief.

“How the fuck is that even possible?” Damien exclaimed. “I can’t even think of five sentences that don’t use the letter E!”

“Not using one of the most prevalent and important vowels in the English language in a book of 5000 words?” Liam raised an eyebrow. “I must confess I am very intrigued. Perhaps I should take a look at this book.

Cold, mocking laughter echoed from all around them, interrupting their protests and comments. **“Heh heh heh heh heh ha ha ha ha…everyone is WRONG! Which means you ALL get to join in the fun.” **The lights flickered out and died, plunging them all into darkness once again. A few seconds later, they were in another Killing Room, this one labeled “228”. **“Welcome back to the Killing Room.” **The projectile screen appeared again, and this time the word that appeared was, **“GREED.”**

A pile of money suddenly appeared on the ground along with the living plushies in the air, causing Vera’s eyes to light up excitedly. Before she could even think about the opportunities she could exploit with that much cash in her pocket, Oz’s voice cut in again, **“I know what you’re thinking, Vera, and don’t try it. The MONEY is made out of shadows and will disappear the moment we go back to the real world.”**

Vera scowled and crossed her arms in irritation, but said nothing.

**“Anyways, this is real simple,” **Oz explained. **“Take as much money as you want, from 0 to 1000 dollars. But if you take the most money or the least money, then I WILL KILL YOU.” **A clock appeared in front of them. **“Begin.”**

The monsters all looked at each other warily, trying to gauge how much money they should take. All of them were smart enough to immediately dismiss the idea of taking less than $300 or more than $700, as that was practically an open invitation to instantly lose and die. Finally, after several seconds of deliberation, they each entered their chosen amount just as the timer began to ran out.

Zoe: $522

Amira: $535

Vera: $587

Brian: $533

Liam: $486

Damien: $623

Liam’s and Damien’s numbers instantly turned blood-red. “Are you fucking kidding me? Fucking DAMMIT!” Damien shouted.

Liam sighed and shook his head as Brian pat him on the shoulder in reassurance. “I made a grave error in misjudgment, it seems,” he muttered.

**“Huh, guess it’s really true what they say about money being the root of all evil,” **Oz remarked. **“I mean, I always thought it was either the depths of Hell or the eternal cesspit that represents the darkest aspects of creation’s thoughts, but what the fuck do I know?”**

Two white Xs scratched themselves into the Liam and Damien plushies, and they were thrown into sharp relief with another scream. This time, the plushies were brutally crushed in metal bear traps before being flipped over and transformed into ghosts.

“Damn, crushed in a bear trap?” Damien grinned. “At least the way I died was metal as fuck!”

Vicky giggled at the sight of her boyfriend’s ghost plushie. “You make for such a cute ghost!” she cooed.

“What?” Damien protested. “I do no…” his voice faltered at Vicky’s glare. “I…I mean, yeah! I totally do!” he quickly amended. “But only as that plushie. I’m Damien Fucking LaVey, the manliest demon in all of Hell outside of my dads!”

“You’ll get back in the game, Liam,” Brian gave him an encouraging smile. The vampire gave his boyfriend a small smile back as they were taken back to the scoreboard. To their surprise, they discovered that they were all allowed to keep the money they had taken, even the ones who had been killed.

Zoe: $1522, Amira: $1535, Vera: $1587, Brian: $1533, Liam: $2486, Vicky: $1000, Damien: $2623

“I don’t know how to feel about the fact that the two richest players are both dead,” Vera muttered.

**“You know, coming back to this realm reminds me of my family,” **Oz mused aloud. His words were enough to attract the attention of everyone, even the Color Squad and Zoe. **“My father was a godless, maniacal sociopath who wanted to plunge the entire world into endless terror and despair. But my mom was such a sweetheart and she liked it so much better when people were happy and peaceful, even though she was just as much of a timeless abomination of darkness as my dad. She was the one who taught me that good was so much more powerful than evil.”**

“Awww, Ozzy…” Zoe cooed adorably, “that’s so sweet!”

**“I mean, how else can I explain why my mom was able to overthrow my father, seize total control of this realm, and shitstomp him so thoroughly he hasn’t been able to even manifest a consciousness for thousands of years?”**

Everyone blinked, their minds derailed by the unexpected twist in Oz’s story. “Well, I mean, at least your mom’s the good guy, right?” Vicky asked.

“Sounds like my kind of woman,” Amira commented with a smirk.

“Am I the only one who wants to see this fight really, REALLY bad?” Damien asked.

**“Anyways,” **the elevator suddenly stopped. **“We’re here!” **The doors swung open and a flaming 4 briefly appeared in the hallway.

**“As a being of darkness, this next piece of information is of very personal interest to me.”**

**“How much longer do we have to wait until the sun dies?”**

  1. About 100 million years
  2. About 1 billion years
  3. About 5 billion years
  4. About 20 billion years

Damien smirked. “The correct answer is how long before I punch the fuck out of it!” he boasted.

“Damien!” Vicky scolded. “We’ve been over this! If you destroy the sun, the Earth will be freezing cold!”

Damien’s confident expression vanished. “Oh…right,” he muttered. “That would suck, I fucking hate the cold.”

“Uhm…I think I know the answer to this?” Brian muttered. “Maybe?”

“Ooh, ooh, this is where my extensive knowledge of the cosmos from being a timeless abomination is sooooooooooo helpful!” Zoe declared with delight. She clicked on her answer, and the timer vanished.

**“Did you pick…”**

** 3) About 5 billion years**

Green check marks appeared under Zoe, Liam, and Vicky’s plushies, while red Xs appeared above everyone else’s. **“Time for some consequences…” **Oz hissed as he forced them into Killing Room 336. This time, the word that he put on the flashing screen was **“SKEWERS.”**

**“I’ve been doing too much of the violence so far. It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t let some of you join in the fun.”**

There was a flash of lightning, and a large box engraved with an eye and many swords pointing at it appeared in the center of the room. The box’s lid fell open as Amira’s, Vera’s, and Brian’s plushies appeared. Inside they could see a total of 20 spaces arranged in 4 rows and 5 columns.

**“Pick a space in the box to hide yourself.”**

“Is this what I think it is?” Vera asked.

“Oh, no…” Brian muttered as he picked a spot.

The box closed and four swords appeared, one in front of the other monsters.

Damien’s eyes lit up like Christmas had come early. “Aww, fuck the HELL YES!” he shouted. “Now you’re speaking my fucking language, Oz!”

**“Now pick a row or column to run your sword through. If you seriously can’t figure out what happens next, you’re a fucking imbecile and I can’t help you.”**

“A fair assessment,” Liam agreed as he picked a slot. The rest of his friends who weren’t at risk each picked a slot after trying to imagine where Amira, Vera, and Liam had attempted to hide.

**“Let’s see some death!”**

Four swords materialized and stabbed themselves into the box. An agonized scream echoed throughout the room…a _male _scream. The lid of the box opened again to reveal Brian’s plushie in the uppermost right corner…with two swords impaled cleanly through his body. Amira’s and Vera’s plushies, while dangerously close to the path of the blades, had remained safe.

“I’m so sorry, Brian!” Vicky gasped as she put her hands up to her mouth, realizing that it had been her sword that had impaled the zombie’s plushie.

Brian gave his friend a halfhearted glare. “I hate everything…” he muttered as he palmed his forehead.

Liam rubbed the zombie’s shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better, I was trying to avoid stabbing you by accident,” he offered. “Granted, this is rather immaterial considering how largely luck-based this is, but still…”

Brian smiled. “I appreciate the thought, Liam.”

“Power couple pulling through again!” Amira grinned as she and Vera high-fived.

“Dammit, nearly missed Amira with my sword,” Damien cursed his ill luck.

**“I think I see why Damien likes fucking around with knives so much!” **Oz commented.

Damien smirked and gave a thumbs up as a white X scratched itself onto Brian’s plushie and it was thrown into focus. Oz sliced the plushie in half with an unseen blade before turning it into a ghost, just like he had back in the tutorial.

“Part of me is wondering how Oz will kill my plushie,” Zoe admitted. “The other part is hoping that I really, REALLY don’t get that plushie destroyed. It’s just so adorable!”

The monsters found themselves back in the SCOREBOARD elevator a second later. Liam now had a sizable lead of $3486, with Damien of all people in second place with $2623. Zoe had $2522, Amira had $1535, Vera had $1587, Brian had $1533, and Vicky had $1500.

Vera narrowed her eyes in dissatisfaction. “The fact my score is this low is unacceptable,” she growled. “It’s time I pick things up a notch.”

**“I would normally come up with a story about me or my mysterious past right about now, but I can’t really think of anything at the moment, so let’s just move on,” **Oz declared as the elevator doors opened. A glowing purple 5 appeared in the hallway, followed by the next question.

**“What are the five consonants and one vowel that contestants receive for the bonus round puzzle on _Wheel of Fortune?_”**

  1. R, E, S, T, N, L
  2. I, N, T, R, S, L
  3. Y, E, R, L, N, D
  4. P, L, O, T, S, G

“At the beginning of the game I would have mocked Oz for giving us an easy question, but after seeing what he’s capable of, I’ll take whatever mercy he gives us,” Liam commented as he clicked on his answer.

“Thanks for the breather, Oz!” Vicky let out a sigh of relief.

“There’s just something so satisfying about free money, even if I know it’s fake,” Vera smirked.

** 1) R, E, S, T, N, L**

A green check appeared under every plushie this time. **“Yeah, I pretty much gave that one to you,” **Oz admitted. **“Enjoy it while you can.” **He zoomed them forward further down the hallway, where a glowing 6 appeared.

**“What’s peppermint?”**

  1. A hybrid of whitemint and applemint
  2. A hybrid of greenmint and spearmint
  3. A hybrid of gingermint and scotchmint
  4. A hybrid of spearmint and watermint

“…Get the fuck out of here, Oz!” Damien snarled.

“I haven’t even heard of most of these mints!” Vicky threw up her arms in frustration.

Liam groaned. “I have narrowed it down to two choices…and I have no idea which one is correct.”

**“And the correct answer is…”**

** 4) A hybrid of spearmint and watermint**

Only one person had a green check mark under their name this time: Vera. “What?” Zoe exclaimed. “How did you get that right?”

Vera smirked. “Peppermint is Valerie’s favorite mint,” she replied with more than a hint of smugness as red Xs appeared above everyone else. “And I wouldn’t be a good sister if I didn’t know everything about my sister’s favorites.”

**“Yes, well, congratulations for you,” **Oz drawled. **“But we still have two people still alive who both got it wrong, so…”**

The hallway darkened again, and when the lights returned they were in Killing Room 420. The minigame that the Fear being would force them to play this time was, “**MIND MELD.”**

**“As the literal embodiment of fear itself, I’m always in the mood for some good ol’ fashioned mind games.”**

Zoe’s and Amira’s plushies both appeared at the top of the room, while the rest of the plushies appeared at the bottom. **“I’m going to give you a category,” **Oz explained.** “Write down an answer that matches that category. If anybody’s answer matches yours,”** his voice descended into an inhuman snarl.** “YOU DIE.”**

“A rather simple exercise,” Liam commented.

**“The category is: one of the first 8 letters of the alphabet.”**

“Really?” Vicky asked incredulously. “Seems pretty easy.”

“And that’s the beauty of it,” Vera smirked. “Because it’s so simple, it will be child’s play for us to pick an answer that fits that category, making it all the easier to wipe out one of them.” Her smirk turned into a frown. “As long as it’s Zoe, that is. I’d…much rather not be responsible for the downfall of my lover and second-in-command.”

Zoe shrugged. “Since it’s Amira you’re rooting for, I don’t mind,” she answered.

“Well, I don’t have that problem since Vicky and I are both dead,” Damien gave them a fiendish grin. “So I’m gonna do my best to try to fuck over BOTH of you!”

“You know, we should probably actually, I don’t know, write an answer down?” Brian pointed out.

“An excellent point,” Liam agreed. Everyone quickly wrote down a letter and submitted it.

**“Now, let’s see if there are any matches.”**

The cards flipped over, revealing the answers.

Zoe: G

Amira: B

Vera: C

Brian: A

Liam: H

Vicky: E

Damien: F

“Heck yeah!” Amira pumped her fist in the air. “We both live!”

“WHOO!” Zoe cheered as she fist-bumped the fire djinn. “No deaths this time!”

**“Really? None of you could figure out what those two wrote down?” **Oz asked, the sneering disdain dripping from his voice. **“Idiots.”**

“Oz, how many times do I have to tell you to stop being so rude?” Vicky scolded as the room darkened and they were taken to the elevator. Zoe had $3522, Amira had $2535, Vera had $3587, Brian had $2533, Liam had $4486, Vicky had $2500, and Damien had $3623.

“Normally, I’d be pissed as fuck if somebody dared to talk shit at me like that,” Damien commented. “But this Oz is so much more a fucking badass than he is back at school that I’m willing to let this shit slide.”

**“Man, it’s been a really long time since I’ve last been in my dark dimension,” **Oz commented, and the monsters stopped talking to let him speak. Considering how interesting his last story had been, they were more than willing to lend an ear. **“This is really the only place I can kick back, relax, and release my true eldritch form, you know. Sprout out all the tentacles, really let loose that black aura of terror and despair that I’ve been holding back all this time.”**

Zoe giggled. “I remember when you invited me over here to show me that, Oz,” she commented with a blush on her face. “Easily the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire existence.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Again, I can’t help but feel that your description of sexiness would vary greatly from anyone else’s. If I didn’t feel that doing so would be of grave detriment to my health and sanity, I’d actually have a mild interest in investigating a little.”

**“I mean, the only reason why I’m not doing that right now is because I’m pretty sure it’d tear your sanity to shreds, drown you in endless horrors both within and without, and leave everyone who isn’t Zoe as a gibbering husk that is only the palest shadow of your former self,” **Oz finished.

“Thank you for proving my point,” Liam muttered as the elevator stopped and the door swung open and the number 7 flashed in the hallway.

**“I’ve always wondered where Valerie gets all the crap in her store from. And speaking of crap in her store…”**

**“…How much does the Penguin Mask cost in Valerie’s shop?”**

  1. $6
  2. $8
  3. $10
  4. $12

Vera smirked. “Easiest question in the entire game so far,” she boasted as she clicked on her answer.

Others, however, were much less pleased. “The fuck?” Damien spluttered. “Valerie actually has something that fucking stupid in her shop?”

“I think I’ve seen Polly wear something like that once, but I don’t know anything about it myself,” Brian commented.

“I don’t even…” Liam muttered as he randomly clicked on his answer.

**“Who said…”**

** 3) $10**

A green check mark appeared under Vera’s and Vicky’s plushies, while red Xs appeared above everyone else. **“The rest of you who are still alive…I want to show you something.”**

“I don’t want to see something!” Zoe protested as Oz forced them to Killing Room 535. This time, the name of his selected game was **“SKULL DICE.”**

**“We haven’t played a game involving dice yet,” **Oz commented as he forced Zoe’s and Amira’s plushies back to the top of the room, **“so let’s fix that.”**

“Luck-based,” Amira rolled her eyes. “Great.”

**“Here’s how this is going to work. You each will be given a dice, and you can roll that dice as many times as you want to add to your score.”**

A green dice appeared under each plushie, with an identical dice appearing on the two players’ screens.

**“In 30 seconds, I will kill the player with the lowest score. But if you go over 21, you die instead!”**

“So this is like a dice version of Blackjack?” Vicky asked. “Polly would love this.”

**“And since we can’t have the safe players just sitting here and doing nothing, I’m giving them a dice too. If they roll a skull, that adds 1 to everyone’s score!”**

The rest of the plushies, which by now were all ghosts except for Vera, also appeared, each with a similar dice above their heads.

“So we get to help screw everyone over by rolling skulls?” Damien snickered. “Perfect.”

**“3…2…1…BEGIN!”**

The monsters immediately began rolling their dice. Zoe started out with an early lead of 6 while Amira only rolled a 3, but she quickly caught up with another high number of her own. Meanwhile, the others tried to roll their dice over and over again to try and get a skull, and with so many safe players rolling they were able to rack up the number count by a fair amount. By the time 20 of the 30 seconds had passed, Zoe had rolled a 16 and Amira had rolled a 15. The fire djinn grimaced as she realized that, as things currently stood, she would be the one killed if the rest of them didn’t roll enough skulls. As five more seconds passed, two more skulls were rolled, upping the counts to 18 and 17.

“Fuck it,” Amira thought, “I have to go for it or else I’m fucked.” Knowing that what she was doing was incredibly risky, she rolled her dice…and rolled a 1. “Yes!” she cheered inwardly as Vicky and Liam rolled one more skull each. The timer vanished, finalizing both Zoe’s and Amira’s scores at 20.

**“Huh…looks like you tied,” **Oz observed. **“Fortunately, I already have a rule set up for ties. It’s reeeeeeeeeeeeal simple.”**

“Oh, fuck…” Amira cursed as a horrible realization struck her. One look at Zoe showed that the eldritch cutie had come to the same conclusion as Amira had. As if to confirm their worst suspicions, the 20s under both plushies turned blood red.

**“YOU BOTH FUCKING DIE.”**

“NOOOOOOO!!!!” Zoe and Amira both cried out as their plushies were thrown into focus with a terrified scream. Oz blasted both plushies with eldritch lightning at the same time, frying them to a crisp, before flipping them around and turning them into ghosts.

“…gotta admit, my plushie is still cute as a ghost,” Zoe mumbled as Oz took them back to the scoreboard elevator. After that last round, Zoe had $3522, Amira had $2535, Vera had $4587, Brian had $2533, Liam had $4486, Vicky had $3500, and Damien had $3623. Not much had actually changed, but there was only one plushie left that hadn’t been turned into a ghost: Vera’s.

And that one change was all that was needed.

**“Only one of you is still alive,” **Oz declared and everyone could hear the delight in his voice. Vera allowed herself to feel a flash of triumph at her success, but it was quickly tempered. There was something about the way the eldritch being said it that made everyone shiver both with anticipation and the faintest hint of dread. **“Which means it’s time for the REAL fun to begin.” **The elevator lights suddenly began to flicker on and off frenziedly, and all of them suddenly felt the elevator begin to descend with a much higher speed than it had going up, accelerating faster and faster.

“What the hell is going on?” Vera exclaimed as she grabbed onto the side of the elevator.

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Vicky shivered in excitement. “We’re finally at the final round!”

“Time for the fun part!” Amira cheered.

“Get me out of this elevator!” Liam groaned.

**“As you will soon see…” **Oz’s voice hissed as the elevator crashed onto the ground. None of them were harmed by the impact of the collision, but they all felt the abrupt jolt as the shock spread through their bodies. As darkness consumed the elevator, Oz finished his last sentence. **“…this is still anyone’s game!”**

/

A/N: And that’s the end of the normal part of Round 1! If you’ve felt that a particular Killing Room minigame was missing, don’t you worry. There’s more than a good chance that said minigame will appear in Round 2.

But that’s further down the road. The Final Round for Round 1 calls. And like many other aspects of this fic, I’m drawing on TMP2 for inspiration MUCH more than I’ve been drawing on TMP1. Including a certain addition to the final round that has spelled the downfall of more than one would-be winner in the past, heh heh heh heh heh…

Hope you guys enjoyed!


	3. Round 1, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s time for the Final Round of Round 1! Vera might have the most money and be the only one alive, but anybody who’s watched or played TMP (especially TMP 2) will know that this state of affairs can change very, very quickly.

When the light returned, the monsters realized that the environment had completely changed.

They were now standing atop a balcony, looking down into the vast chamber that made up the main hallway of the hotel. The chamber was divided into rows that stretched from one wall to the other, and the carpet and walls were all decorated with skulls. In the far distance on the other side of the hall, the monsters could see the front entrance to the hotel, its doors open wide.

And to complete the dark and creepy atmosphere, ominous music that filled them with a sense of both thrill and anxiety began to play all around them.

** [[NOTE: Begin playing Trivia Murder Party 2 Final Round theme by Andy Poland (use the official YouTube video). For maximum immersion and setting the mood, begin looping 0:00-0:48 (Here we go again)]] **

**“So, you’re the one who survived,” **Oz’s voice echoed in the chamber. **Congratulations. But getting here alive, and making it out alive, are two very different things.”**

The still living Vera plushie was moved a few rows into the chamber next to the opposite wall, 14 spaces away from the exit. The ghost plushies were placed at the farthest left row, 21 spaces away, arranged from farthest to closest in order of decreasing amount of money held. **“I’m going to give you a category.”**

**VENOMOUS ANIMALS**

Alligator Snapping Turtle, Marbled Cone Snail

**“Tap on each answer that you think fits this category, and then submit your choices.”**

Vera smirked. “I’ve done years of research looking up animals and their poisons,” she boasted. “This is no challenge whatsoever!” The gorgon clicked on the “Marbled Cone Snail” option on her screen and submitted her answer.

**“Let’s see what the right answer is.”**

XXXXXX, **Marbled Cone Snail**

Two green ✓ marks appeared next to the Vera plushie. **“You move forward one space for each correct answer.”**

“Just as I thought,” Vera gave a satisfied smile as her plushie moved 2 spaces forward, so that it was now only 12 spaces away from the exit. At the end of the hallway opposite the where they were starting, a giant EXIT sign began to glow above the open doors leading outside.

**“You’re on your way to escaping!” **Oz declared approvingly. Then, a sinister combination of menace and amusement appeared in his tone. **“But you’re not the only one here now, are you?”**

Vera’s smirk faded as she looked back over at the left end of the hallway. With a sinister, unnatural echo, the ghostly plushies of Liam, Damien, and Zoe moved forward 3 spaces, 2 spaces, and 1 space respectively.

**“All the other ghosts get to play too. And if a ghost catches up to you, they get to come back to life by stealing your life force. Then, they get a chance to escape and win the game.”**

Damien’s eyes lit up in delight. “Aww, fuck the HELL YES!” he shouted. “Your ass is mine, Vera!”

“An idiot like you?” Vera scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh.”

“Ooh, I get so excited every time we get to this part!” Zoe squealed in delight. “I hope I win Ozzy’s game this time!”

“May the best monster win,” Liam muttered.

**“Here’s EVERYONE’S next question!” **Oz interrupted.

**[[NOTE: For maximum immersion, loop 0:48 - 1:36 (Not only ghosts behind you)]]**

**MONTHS WITH 31 DAYS**

April, August

**“And ghosts get a third option to help them catch up to you!” **A third option appeared, though this one was faded and written in white with the icon of a ghost next to it.

_November_

“If I hadn’t already played this with Oz before, I’d say this was a joke,” Amira remarked. “But knowing him well as I do, he’s only being generous now so he can fuck us later.”

“That sounds about right,” Brian agreed.

“Take the easy points while you can, guys,” Vicky advised.

The monsters made their selections, and Oz revealed the correct answer, as well as how many spaces each character had moved forward.

XXXXXX, **August, November**

Vera: ✓✓ (to 10 spaces away from the exit)

Liam: ✓✓✓ (to 15)

Damien: ✓✓✓ (to 16)

Zoe: ✓✓✓ (to 17)

Vicky: ✓✓✓ (to 18)

Amira: ✓✓✓ (to 18)

Brian: ✓✓✓ (to 18)

The Vera plushie moved up again, but this time all of the ghost plushies followed behind, emitting the same spooky cadence that sent chills crawling down their spines as they did so.

**SNOOPY’S SIBLINGS**

Belle, Scrambler, _Molly_

Everyone stared blankly at the question. “Snoopy had siblings?” Zoe exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. “They must be sooooo cute!”

Damien scoffed. “You were right, babe,” he told Vicky with a scowl. “Oz is going to shit on all of us, isn’t he?”

“One of those sounds like bullshit, but for the rest of those I have no idea,” Vera muttered to herself.

**Belle, **XXXXXX, **Molly**

Vera: X✓ (to 9)

Liam: X✓✓ (to 13)

Damien: ✓X✓ (to 14)

Zoe: ✓X✓ (to 15)

Vicky: ✓✓✓ (to 15)

Amira: ✓✓X (to 16)

Brian: X✓✓ (to 16)

“Yes!” Vicky cheered. “Got them all right!”

“I literally just picked all of them,” Zoe admitted. “And I think I probably did better than if I’d actually tried.”

“Yeah, pretty much went with the Fuck It option too,” Damien agreed.

**“Moving on…” **Oz interrupted.

**MONOGAMOUS ANIMALS**

Bighorn sheep, walrus, _dolphin_

Liam smirked. “I’m suddenly much less annoyed at Polly for talking about how dolphins have sex for pleasure,” he commented. “Anybody else remember that fiasco?”

Brian groaned. “Don’t remind me,” he answered his boyfriend. “I couldn’t get that image out my head for the whole day.”

Vera hissed in irritation. “I’d thank you for giving me the answer, except for the fact that I can’t pick it!” she snarled.

XXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX

Vera: ✓X (to 8)

Liam: ✓X✓ (to 11)

Damien: XX✓ (to 13)

Zoe: ✓X✓ (to 13)

Vicky: X✓✓ (to 13)

Amira: ✓✓✓ (to 13)

Brian: X✓✓ (to 14)

“It was NONE of them!” Zoe exclaimed.

“Hah!” Amira pumped her fist in the air. “Got all of them right!”

Vera smiled with surprising warmth at her girlfriend. “Good for you, hot stuff,” she complimented.

“I’ll never be able to look at these animals the same way again,” Liam sighed.

**“Getting a little too comfortable, are we?” **Oz’s voice reverberated around them with a menacing hiss. **“Then let me give you something to fear.”**

As he finished speaking, the farthest edge of the room where the ghost plushies had started was suddenly fell into darkness. A darkness that was not merely the absence of light, but an oppressive, dreadful force that seemed to consume whatever it touched and stirred up the same feelings of dread and horror that the monsters had felt when they had first come into Oz’s dimension. The monsters watched as the darkness advanced through 4 rows, plunging them into a black nothingness. At the same time, the ominous music began to pick up in intensity, signaling that the next stage of the final round was about to begin.

The Darkness: 18 spaces from the exit

**“Pick up the pace, if you know what’s good for you,” **Oz warned.

“I’ve seen that darkness before, and something about it still gives me the creeps,” Brian muttered.

“I never want to see what would happen if Oz ever turned evil,” Vicky shivered.

“Part of me wants to write a What-If fic, but the stronger half doesn’t want to even think about that idea ever,” Zoe admitted.

** [[NOTE: Begin looping 1:36-2:24 (The Thrill Thickens)]] **

**ONE OF THE 7 CHAKRAS**

Inner soul, Throat, _Heart_

Damien scowled. “Chakras? Is this some peace bullshit? Why the fuck would I care about that?”

Liam, on the other hand, was smirking. “I see my brief venture into Hindu culture is about to pay dividends,” he smugly commented.

Amira sighed. “Fuck it, going with all three, cause I don’t fucking know.”

XXXXXX, **Throat, Heart**

Vera: ✓X (to 7)

Liam: ✓✓✓ (to 8)

Damien: X✓✓ (to 11)

Zoe: X✓✓ (to 11)

Vicky: ✓X✓ (to 11)

Amira: XX✓ (to 12)

Brian: ✓X✓ (to 12)

Vera’s plushie advanced closer to the exit, but so too did the ghosts of the other plushies with another unnatural echo. Liam smirked as he realized just how close his plushie was to the gorgon’s. “One more question, Vera, and I’ll be the one in the lead.”

“I can see that!” Vera retorted, her snakes imitating the noise in agitation.

**“Cutting it a little close there, are we?” **Oz gleefully pointed out, as if mocking the danger the Vera plushie was in. The darkness advanced two more spaces, an omnipresent danger that was growing ever closer.

The Darkness: 16 spaces from the exit

**LONDON TUBE LINES**

Circle Line, Waterloo and City Line, _High Speed Line_

Everyone stared blankly at the question. “Oz, I never thought I’d be saying this, but you can be a real dick sometimes!” Vicky scolded.

“How the fuck would I know this crap?” Damien cursed. “I’ve never been to London!”

Vera hid a smile. Just last month, she had taken a trip to London to…take care of business. And though she sneered at the idea of riding a dirty, overcrowded underground train, she had seen signs for the first two lines and that was all she needed to answer the question.

**Circle Line, Waterloo and City Line,** XXXXXX

Vera: ✓✓ (to 5)

Liam: X✓✓ (to 6)

Damien: X✓X (to 10)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 9)

Vicky: ✓✓X (to 9)

Amira: ✓✓X (to 10)

Brian: X✓✓ (to 10)

“Just as I expected,” Vera smirked.

“One of them was pretty easy to figure out,” Zoe commented, eliciting various expressions and comments of agreement from the others. “Just took a guess on the others.”

**“That ghost is right behind you, waiting to claim your life,” **Oz hissed as the darkness advanced. **“What will you do about it?”**

The Darkness: 14 spaces from the exit

** [[NOTE: Begin looping 2:24-3:12 (The Dark Pressure)]] **

**NUMBERS THAT DIVIDE INTO 54**

27, 18, _22_

“Oh, thank GOD!” Damien exclaimed. “Finally, an easy question!”

“I’ll take those free points,” Brian said with relief as he put in his answers.

Vera, on the other hand, was less than pleased. “Arrrrrggghhhh…”

“What’s wrong?” Vicky asked with a mild look of concern.

“Everyone’s going to get this question right,” Vera explained with a growl. “But because Liam gets three options while I only get two, he’s going to catch up!”

**27, 18, **XXXXXX

Vera: ✓✓ (to 3)

Liam: ✓✓✓ (to 3)

Damien: ✓✓✓ (to 7)

Zoe: ✓✓✓ (to 6)

Vicky: ✓✓✓ (to 6)

Amira: ✓✓✓ (to 7)

Brian: ✓✓✓ (to 7)

Vera’s plushie moved forward, tantalizingly close to the exit. The ghosts all moved forward with their unnatural wail…and the Liam plushie caught up to Vera’s. “Bah!” Vera snapped as her plushie was pushed back one space and turned into a ghost…while the Liam plushie came back to life with a flash of light. Seconds later, the darkness crept forward, consuming the next 2 rows.

The Darkness: 12 spaces from the exit

Brian grinned and put a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Nice going, Liam!”

Liam chuckled. “Perhaps I’ll be the one to claim victory after all,” he mused, a subtle taunt to Vera that the gorgon didn’t miss.

“So you answer an easy question correct and you think you’re on top of the world?” Vera scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh.”

**“You killed your friend, claimed her life force for your own. Congratulations,” **Oz congratulated, before his voice descended into a snarl. **“But what happened to her, CAN MOST CERTAINLY HAPPEN TO YOU!”**

**BLOOD TYPES**

P, F-, _AB+_

The monsters couldn’t resist the urge to snicker at the made-up blood types. “P, huh?” Damien smirked. “That would be some shit, if your blood was literally piss.”

“That would just suck!” Vicky agreed. “If my blood was P, I’d be going to straight to the doctor!”

“I’d almost be less worried if my blood type was P than if my blood type was F-,” Liam chuckled. “At least with P you could blame biology. Imagine your blood literally being the essence of failure.”

“Anybody want to take any bets that this is Leonard’s blood type?” Zoe joked. Her comment was met with a loud chorus of agreement.

“Such a fucking loser,” Damien sneered. “I bet he opened the GIFT once and got Coal dumped on his fat ass. He might as well be the living, breathing version of Coal.”

“I disagree,” Vera interjected. At the surprised looks sent her way, she elaborated: “Coal has its uses. Leonard doesn’t even have that. Calling him coal would be an insult to coal.”

**“Amen to that,” **Oz agreed, briefly departing from his routine as a serial killer host. Realizing that he had broken character, he quickly switched back. **“Ahem…I mean, time’s almost up, so pick your answers.”**

XXXXXX, XXXXXX, **AB+**

“Dammit!” Zoe groaned. “I was so distracted talking about how much of a loser Leonard is I forgot to pick the last answer!”

“It’s okay,” Brian assured her. “That’s a perfectly valid reason for making a mistake.”

Vera: ✓✓✓ (to 1)

Liam: ✓✓ (to 1)

Damien: ✓✓✓ (to 4)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 4)

Vicky: ✓✓✓ (to 3)

Amira: ✓✓✓ (to 4)

Brian: ✓✓✓ (to 4)

“Give me my life force back!” Vera declared triumphantly as her plushie raced up to the same row as Liam’s. This time, it was the Vera plushie that came back to life, and Liam’s that was pushed back one row and into a skeletal, ghostly state. The darkness pushed further, by now covering more than half of the chamber below.

The Darkness: 10 spaces from the exit.

Vera didn’t seem particularly concerned, however. “Only one more question to answer correctly, and victory is…”

** [[NOTE: Begin looping 3:12-4:00 (No Escape)]] **

That was when a massive black iron gate slammed down in front of the exit, glowing with purple flames, a hideous demonic skull engraved on the front with glowing red eyes glaring menacingly at them all. The music had escalated again into a thrilling and frenzied pitch, highlighting the intensity and the beginning of the final stage. Vera’s smile vanished instantly.

**“Did you really think that I was going to let you escape that easily?” **Oz questioned mockingly. **“If you want to make it out alive, you have to get all the answers correct on the next question.”**

**MOONS OF JUPITER**

Chaldene, Chantaloup, _Cornillide_

**“And when I say all of them…” **the third answer choice suddenly solidified.

Cornillide

**“…I mean ALL of them,” **Oz finished with a hiss.

“What!” Vera spluttered, her collected composure fracturing at this latest obstacle. “I don’t know this!”

“All right, there’s no way Oz didn’t come up with this shit just to fuck with all of us,” Amira added, looking just as displeased as her girlfriend.

“Pure fucking guessing, pure fucking guessing, fan-fucking-tastic!” Damien growled.

“I’m just gonna pick this one cause it sounds cool,” Vicky sighed.

**Chaldene**, XXXXXX, XXXXXX

Vera: ✓X✓ (to 1)

Liam: ✓✓X (to 1)

Damien: X✓✓ (to 2)

Zoe: ✓✓✓ (to 1)

Vicky: ✓X✓ (to 1)

Amira: XX✓ (to 3)

Brian: ✓XX (to 3)

Vera’s plushie slid toward the gate and collided it into it, bouncing back as the demonic skull emblazoned on the gate let out a guttural snarl. The ghostly plushies floated forward with ethereal moans, with the ghostly Liam plushie also crashing into and being repelled by the barrier. The purple flames burning around the gate turned blue, and the glow in the skull’s eyes dimmed ever so slightly.

**“So close…and yet so far!” **Oz taunted.

“Wait, there’s so many players in front of the gate!” Zoe exclaimed. “Who’s going to be…”

There was a flash as the Liam plushie claimed the life force of the Vera plushie, and the rest of the plushies were pushed back to 2 spaces away from the gate.

“Arrrggghhh…” Vera growled as she realized that she had been killed for the second time.

“So only one of us can be in front of the gate at a time,” Liam observed. “Interesting…”

The darkness advanced again, and by now the monsters had realized that it wasn’t just the chamber below that was being consumed by the shadows. The rest of the environment around them, which had previously been clearly visible and well-decorated, had also gradually darkened with each turn to the point that they could barely see anything. And minus Oz’s omnipresence…

…it almost felt as if they weren’t alone anymore…

The Darkness: 8 spaces from the exit.

**SQUASH**

Crookneck squash, Watermelon squash, Dumpling Squash

“…at this point, I’m starting to wonder what wrong we committed against Oz at school that he would feel the need to be this sadistic in his game,” Liam muttered.

“I didn’t even know there were multiple types of squash!” Vicky exclaimed.

“GRAAAAAHH!!! WHO THE FUCK EVEN CARES???” Damien ranted. “SQUASHES ARE EVEN SHITTIER THAN BANANAS!”

“No argument from me there,” Brian muttered.

**Crookneck squash, **XXXXXX, **Dumpling Squash**

Vera: ✓✓X (to 1)

Liam: ✓XX (to 1)

Damien: ✓X✓ (to 1)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 1)

Vicky: ✓X✓ (to 1)

Amira: X✓X (to 2)

Brian: X✓✓ (to 1)

**“Good…” **Oz hissed, **“but not good enough!”**

Liam’s plushie crashed into the gate, again being repelled. With so many of them close together, many ghost plushies advanced to the edge of freedom, either stopping just in front of the gate or crashing into it and being repelled again. Vera’s plushie came to life again to the gorgon’s delight and the others’ disappointment as the rest of the plushies were pushed back one space.

“Why, Oz?” Amira asked with a groan. "Why would you put something so EVIL?"

“Wouldn’t you be the one to know this?” Vera pointed out. “You were here last time!”

“Oz didn’t have this game up the last time we played!” Zoe explained. “Last time, if you got to the end, you made it out.”

“At this point, we’re just as much in the dark as you are,” Vicky finished. She cast a nervous glance at the darkness. “In more ways than one.”

As if on cue, the darkness advanced again, and with the plushies stalled at the barrier it was starting to get uncomfortably close.

The Darkness: 6 spaces from the exit.

** [[NOTE: Begin looping 4:00-end (The Window through Madness)]] **

Demented laughter suddenly erupted around the monsters, a hideous cackling that forced them to remember just how insignificant they were in a dimension of darkness and fear. Numerous pairs of glowing red eyes flashed opened in the shadows, which had been only been an empty nothingness up until this point. And with this one detail, the darkness looked more predatory than ever before.

“What the hell is in there?” Damien asked. His words were spoken with nonchalance, but more than one monster could hear the faint trace of fear in his voice.

“It must be Oz’s phobias, their true power unleashed,” Liam murmured. He glanced over at Brian, who shrugged.

“Don’t look at us,” Brian replied, and even he looked a bit nervous. “Last time we played this, we didn’t have the barrier, so the darkness never got this close.”

The only one who didn’t seem at all perturbed was Zoe, who merely smirked. “I’m not telling,” she said with a wink.

**THE FRENCH “MOTHER SAUCES”**

Chimichurri, Bordelaise, Beurre blanc

Vera’s eyes lit up with delight. “Yes!” she cheered, not even bothering to hide her relief as she put in her answers.

“Awww…I think Vera’s about to win this,” Vicky groaned.

Amira smirked. “Fine by me.”

“Whatever,” Zoe threw her tentacle and hand in the air and rolled her many eyes. “There’s always next game. None of the trivia questions Oz asked this round were ones that I really knew all that well anyway.”

XXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX

Vera: ✓✓✓

Liam: ✓XX

Damien: X✓X

Zoe: ✓✓X

Vicky: ✓✓✓

Amira: X✓✓

Brian: ✓X✓

“YES!” Vera shouted in triumph. “This game is over! Vera Oberlin plays to win!”

“Aww,” Vicky groaned. “I got them all right too, but because Vera’s still alive she gets to go first and win!”

Damien wrapped an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder. “It’s okay!” he assured her with a gentle smile, before it suddenly turned into a fiendish grin. “We’ll kick her ass next time!”

The Vera plushie advanced towards the gate again…and this time, the gate lifted upward and disappeared, the flames dying out and the glow in the skull’s eyes fading into nothing. Vera’s plushie flew towards the exit and fled the hotel, emitting a scream as the doors slammed shut behind her.

And now that Vera had won the game, a far less pleasant fate awaited the ghost plushies left behind. A demonic snarl drew the monsters’ attention back to the hallway. The darkness began to consume the entire room, charging with a far greater speed than it had previously, as though it had just been released from unseen chains. Once it reached the ghost plushies, the darkness devoured them completely, all of them letting out terrified screams. The darkness destroyed the plushies without leaving a single trace remaining and advanced well past their destruction, not relenting until the entire hallway was engulfed. The entire chamber of the hotel, both within the game and up in the balconies, was suddenly plunged into shadows.

Then, suddenly, the monsters found themselves back outside in the blink of an eye, looking straight at the decrepit, accursed hotel that they had played the game in only seconds earlier.

“Wait, what’s going…” Damien began.

**“BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!”**

The hotel suddenly exploded, the raw power behind the blast sending them sprawling backwards. A massive cloud of dark purple flame surrounded the hotel, with a sizable portion of it also sprouting upward like a nuclear cloud. The explosion “cloud” shifted into the shape of a demonic fiend’s head, black save for two foci of flame that served as its eyes. A plume of dark fire erupted from the top of the “head”, while the pillar of flame that led up to the cloud from underneath made the whole thing look like a hellish, elongated jaw.

“Holy shit…” Amira breathed. “Oz didn’t do THAT last time!”

“An explosion with the powers of darkness instead of the cliché element of fire?” Liam raised an eyebrow. “Quite impressive, I must say.”

“Unholy shit…” Damien’s jaw gaped open. “That is one of the most beautiful explosions I’ve ever seen! Fuck me, this is true art!”

The explosion cloud and the flames faded away, leaving only the first few floors of the hotel as a broken ruin with dark flames still licking across the remains. A giant screen flickered to life above the hotel, similar to the screen they had seen in the beginning except much larger, and the image of a newspaper clip appeared with the living Vera plushie featured on a picture to the left.

**“VERA WINS TWISTED GAME! Found with $4587.”**

**“Killer Host Described as Sexy Shadow Man.”**

“Pfftttt!” Zoe giggled and the rest of the Color Squad rolled their eyes at Oz’s description of himself as the newspaper clip and screen faded away. An eerie music box tune played as pictures of the fallen ghost plushies floated from the bottom up, along with a description of how each player had died in descending order of cash earned.

Liam: $4486. Cause of death: **didn’t love money enough**

Damien: $3623. Cause of death: **greedy motherfucker**

Zoe: $3522. Cause of death: **can’t roll for shit**

Vicky: $3500. Cause of death: **couldn’t quote a genius**

Amira: $2535. Cause of death: **shit with dice**

Brian: $2533. Cause of death: **stabbed in the ass**

Survivor: Vera: $4587.

Vera smirked. “These are so condescendingly insulting, I love it. And all so accurate, too.”

“Go fuck yourself!” Damien retorted. “I bet if we played another game you wouldn’t do so hot!”

“I wouldn’t mind going for another round,” Liam commented. “It’s not like I have anything better to do this weekend.”

**“So that’s my version of Trivia Murder Party for you guys!” **Oz’s voice interrupted, echoing all around them. While it still possessed its unearthly and eldritch inflections, it no longer had the malevolence that it had employed during the game. **“What do you guys think?”**

“That was amazing, Oz!” Zoe squealed, her eyes lighting up with delight. “It was even better than the last time we played!”

“I definitely didn’t see that barrier at the end coming,” Brian commented with a smile of his own. “Made things a lot harder for whoever’s first.”

“That was so much more intense than I remember!” Amira exclaimed. “I loved every second of it!”

**“And what about you guys?” **Oz’s voice changed its focus to the three newcomers.

“I thought trivia was boring as fuck before today,” Damien admitted, before his mouth stretched into a grin. “But oh my fuck, adding violent murder to it literally changed everything. That was fucking awesome!”

“It’s a combination that I must applaud the humans for creating, and you for adapting in such a superior manner,” Liam complimented.

Vera smirked. “A chance to flaunt my intelligence, crush my enemies, pretend to hold piles of cash, and show off to my girlfriend all at the same time? A perfect way to spend the weekend.”

**“So you guys want to play another round?”**

“HELL YEAH!” Zoe exclaimed, and everyone else made various noises and expressions of affirmation.

**“Great!” **And with those words, a howling wind suddenly blew out the dark flames still licking across the hotel. The wind snuffed out the flames instantly, leaving only the charred ruins of the hotel. Before anyone could say anything, the front doors of the hotel (which had inexplicably survived the explosion) swung open, once again leading to darkness.

“Uh…didn’t you explode the fuck out of the hotel?” Damien asked, confused. “How are we supposed to play in…”

**“Shut the fuck up and get your ass into the hotel right now,” **Oz interrupted, the menace in his voice returned in full.

“All right, all right…” Damien raised his hands in surrender. The seven friends, this time walking together rather than entering separately, ventured into the depths of the ruined hotel as the doors swung shut behind them.

It was time for Round 2 to begin.

/

A/N: And that’s the final round for part 1! Ideally, you should be at 3:10 when you got to the “barrier” part of the final round, but I understand that people have different reading speeds and this might not line up with reality. The “demented laughter” part of the fic corresponds to when that laughter starts playing in the final round theme of TMP2.

If there was a certain Killing Room minigame that wasn’t present in the first round that you wished had been played, don’t worry! That’s what Round 2 is for 😊

Hope you guys enjoyed!


	4. Round 2, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vera won the first round, who will win the second? Whoever it is, they’ve got a long, hard road ahead of them. And Oz may not be so merciful with his questions this time around…

By now, the monsters expected the total darkness when the hotel doors closed behind them, so they were less taken aback than they had been the first time. And they were also less surprised when the same giant screen from before flickered on for the second time.

“Can we please not see this again?” Brian asked in a bored tone as the same ominous music from before started up again. But before anyone could agree with him, the slideshow suddenly paused and the music fell silent instantly.

**“That’s a good point, actually.” **Oz agreed.** “We’ve already seen this and I doubt anyone would fucking care enough to see it again, soooooooo…” **the intro sequence suddenly began to zoom forward, far too quickly for anyone to catch any details, with a giant Fast-Forward icon flashing in front of it. **“…skipping the bullshit…skipping the bullshit…skipping the bullshit…”**

The same terrifying scream from before shattered the silence, and the giant words **“Trivia Murder Party” **flashed onto the screen for a second time. This time, however, the screen shattered in the wake of a giant explosion similar to the one that had blown up the hotel, albeit on a much smaller scale. The lights turned on again to reveal the same hotel hallway that they had started the first round in, pristine and undamaged…disturbingly so.

“Wait, time the fuck out!” Damien made a time-out gesture with his hands as he looked suspiciously around the hotel. “We saw you explode the fuck out of the hotel. So how the hell does everything look so clean and not blown up and ruined and burned and all that shit?”

Vicky shook her head and sighed. “Eldritch locations, Damien,” she reminded her boyfriend, mirroring Amira’s words to her own significant other earlier. “Try not to think about it too much.”

**“Welcome to Trivia Murder Party!” **Oz greeted them with the same morbidly cheerful tone that he had used earlier.** “But you already know what’s going on, and I don’t feel like explaining shit again, so fuck the tutorial!”**

“I approve of this message,” Vera smirked. “Time is money, and I hate wasting both!”

“I love it when Oz has his I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude,” Zoe gushed. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, most of the time he’s just pure adorable and I could hug him all day, but sometimes you need a bit of a different flavor to spice up a relationship. Along with all the other ways we, uh…_experiment_…”

Liam groaned. “Please don’t go into details about how you, quote-on-quote, spice up your relationship.”

Vicky grinned mischievously, eager for more details. “No, please, keep going!” she insisted.

**“Ahem…” **Oz interrupted, sounding both annoyed and embarrassed despite the eldritch echo in his voice. **“I’m not going into my love life with Zoe right now. In case you forgot, we’re here to play a trivia game where I’ll be killing all but one of you. And the next person who tries to pry into the details of my relationship gets…THE LOSER WHEEL.”**

The Color Squad gasped in horror, but Zoe merely looked up and smirked. “But what if I’m the one who wants to talk about it?” she asked innocently.

**“Uh…uh…uh…” **Oz stuttered incoherently, before he decided to do what any intelligent embodiment of fear and darkness would do in this situation, and promptly fled the conversation entirely by throwing up a giant flaming number 1. **“First question.”**

“Tch,” Amira snickered, with most of the other monsters either rolling their eyes or trying not to laugh.

**“What is the official scientific name for catnip?**

  1. Cattus nippus
  2. Catonum nipance
  3. Nepurra cativus
  4. Nepeta cataria

The laughter stopped instantly. “What the fuck…” Brian gaped.

“We shouldn’t have laughed,” Vicky groaned. “WE SHOULDN’T HAVE LAUGHED!”

“Oz is about to fuck us all, isn’t he?” Damien asked dully.

“Catnip has a scientific name???” Vera protested. “My family is full of cats and they barely even cared about the brand names when they still ate that garbage!”

**“And the correct answer is…”**

  1. ** Nepeta cataria**

The monsters all let out exclamations of dismay and frustration as red Xs appeared over _every single plushie_. **“Heh heh heh heh heh…” **Oz laughed mockingly at their misfortune. **“Only the first question of the game, and every single one of you has managed to fuck it up already. This is going to be fuuuuuuuuuuuuun…”**

“Because obviously we’re going to all get it wrong when it’s about an obscure detail that nobody cares about!” Liam protested. However, his words fell on deaf ears as Oz plunged the hallway into darkness and forced them into Killing Room 108. A screen flickered on the opposite wall, and Oz’s shadowy hand put up the word **“CHALICES.”**

**“Let’s see how good you are at avoiding poison.”**

A golden tray manifested in the middle of the room, with 8 different chalices resting on top of it. Some of the more interesting chalices included an identical copy of the Carpenter’s cup from _Indiana Jones_, a chalice shaped like a skull, and a golden chalice with an emerald body. There was also, bizarrely, a souvenir cup from an amusement park mixed in with the more ornate chalices. The plushies representing the monsters appeared above the tray of chalices.

**“Half of these chalices are poisoned,” **Oz informed them. **“Pick a chalice to drink from.”**

“Oh, great,” Amira rolled her eyes. “A 50:50 chance that we die.”

Zoe sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Each monster picked a chalice after a few seconds of deliberation. Some tried to pick a chalice that they thought Oz would leave untainted, while others decided to forego prediction entirely and decided to simply take a chalice that tickled their fancy.

**“Good to the last drop,” **Oz commented once they had all made their choices. **“Now let’s see what everyone drank.”**

Different chalices appeared next to the plushies. Zoe and Brian had picked a pewter chalice with a Roman style. Liam had picked the skull chalice “ironically”, while Vera had picked the emerald chalice. Amira, Vicky, and Damien had all picked the souvenir cup, neither of them being able to resist the urge to pick something that clashed so glaringly with the rest.

Wisps of smoke rose out of half the chalices, turning into skulls and crossbones…_over all four of those chalices_.

“WHAT?” Vicky’s jaw dropped open as red skulls and crossbones appeared next to every single plushie. “We ALL picked a poisoned chalice?”

Zoe gasped. “Wait, doesn’t this mean we all die?”

Vera cursed. “I KNEW picking that chalice was a bad idea!” she growled. “Why did I ignore my instincts?”

Brian cringed. “Man, the odds of this happening were supposed to be really low,” he commented. “How the hell did ALL of us fuck up?”

**“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, you’re gonna go out the same way as Socrates!” **Oz offered as he scratched a white X onto each plushie. The plushies were all thrown to the forefront with a terrified scream, and more than one monster cringed as Oz vicious impaled them all with a volley of nails, before flipping them over and turning them into ghosts.

Damien stared at the vicious display in all. “Oh…my…fuck…” he gasped. “A poison that literally crucifies whoever drinks it with a fuckton of nails??? That is one of the most fucking metal things I’ve ever seen in my life!”

Vera looked equally interested. “Such a poison would be fascinating,” she agreed. “If not the most subtle, it would definitely be the most entertaining.”

**“…what in the actual fuck just happened?” **Oz asked incredulously. **“Did you seriously ALL die on the first fucking question of the game? I mean, I knew there was always the possibility that I would kill a bunch of you in one go, but I didn’t expect you all to be this fucking incompetent at escaping death! In, again, the first fucking question!”**

“Incompetence?” Liam scoffed. “This was luck-based!”

“So what, do we all lose now?” Damien grumbled.

Brian shrugged. “I dunno, we never all died this early in Oz’s version of the game.”

**“Well, I can’t have you all die before the Final Round is ready,” **Oz mused. There was a long sigh that echoed all around them. **“All right, I know what I’m going to do. Lemme pull some Dr. Strange Eye of Agamotto bullshit here, and…”**

Green spectral clocks began to manifest all around the room, with a much larger clock appearing in the center. The monsters stared as the clocks suddenly began to wind backward at an increasingly rapid rate, and all the events that just took part rewinded in a blur. When the clocks finally stopped ticking and vanished, they were all back in the hotel hallway…and all of the plushies were alive again.

“What just happened?” Amira asked. “I feel like I just went through one of Polly’s drug trips.”

**“Sooooo, I don’t really bring this up at all in school, but as the embodiment of fear itself I am basically a god,” **Oz explained. **“I don’t say this out of some inflated sense of self-importance or superiority. I am literally a dark god who can do dark god things. And as you can imagine, there are a couple of perks to being a god.”**

Zoe grinned as Vera and Damien tried to hide their jealousy. “Yep!” she cheerfully agreed. “Can confirm!”

**“One of those perks is that, in my own dimension at least, I can make the laws of time and space my bitch. And I can undo massive fuck-ups like, say, everyone dying before the final round is ready. So I’ve rewinded time and given you all a second chance, because I can do that. Make the most of it, because if you all fuck up too early a second time, I’m just gonna let you all die.”**

“Thanks…I guess?” Brian raised an eyebrow.

**“You’re welcome, for I am a generous god,” **Oz replied, and everyone rolled their eyes at the smugness oozing from his voice. A flaming purple 2 appeared in the hallway, signaling the next question.

**“How did the Headless Horseman lose his head?”**

  1. Guillotine
  2. Sword fight
  3. Cannonball
  4. The original story never says

“Ooh!” Zoe chattered excitedly. “I know this! I know this!”

Damien grinned. “There we go, something more up my expertise!”

Liam shook his head in exasperation. “Of course you’re the one who would consider violence as expertise.” His mouth curled up in a smirk. “Fortunately, I too am familiar with this story, so answering this shall be a simple matter.”

Amira, however, looked less pleased. “Dammit!” she cursed. “I knew I should’ve paid attention during that lesson about _Humans Who Suffered Violent Deaths_!”

Damien smirked. “Normally I wouldn’t given a shit about class, but when it comes to death, war, and murder, sign me the fuck up!”

**“Who said…”**

  1. ** Cannonball**

Green check marks appeared under Zoe’s, Vera’s, Liam’s, Vicky’s, and Damien’s plushies, while red Xs appeared over Amira’s and Brian’s. **“Come with me,” **Oz ordered as he dragged them to Room 113. The name that he put up this time was **“PASSWORD.”**

**“I’m going to give you a chance to protect yourself with a password,” **Oz explained as he put up his friends’ plushies. **“Type in a real four-letter word on your device. Don’t make it easy, because if anyone figures out the password, YOU DIE,” **he finished threateningly. Amira and Brian thought for several seconds, then each put in a word. A sealed lock with a skull engraved on it appeared next to each plushie. The smirks on both of their faces made it clear that they both thought their words would be impossible to solve.

The rest of the plushies appeared on the floor. **“You have 45 seconds to try to figure out the passwords. You get a clue if you guess a letter in the right spot. And I’ll be rewarding EVERYONE if you can break a password, so be sure to share all the info you have.”**

The monsters besides Amira and Brian immediately began to type words frantically onto their devices. For the first few seconds, red Xs appeared over the plushies, signaling a complete failure. “I got an E in the third spot of Brian’s word!” Vicky called out.

“I got a B in the first spot of Amira’s!” Zoe declared.

But that was as far as their luck took them. No matter how many different combinations and ideas they tried to devise, none of the monsters could come up with any more correct letters. The smirks on Amira’s and Brian’s faces evolved into full-blown grins as the others’ frustrations increased. About 5 seconds before the time ran out, Vera managed to find a U in the second spot of Amira’s, but that was it. The moment the clock vanished, the word “BUZZ” appeared under Amira’s plushie and “IBEX” appeared under Brian’s. Neither lock had been breached, and both had survived.

Everyone stared at the two words as Amira and Brian looked on smugly. “The fuck?” Damien’s jaw dropped. “Ibex is a real word?”

“Using one of the rarest letters twice, back to back,” Vera commented with approval. “Quite the crafty play, and I’d expect nothing less from Amira.” The fire djinn grinned at the gorgon, who smiled back.

**“Damn…” **Oz marveled. **“Normally I’d shit on you guys for being incompetent dumbasses who couldn’t figure out even one four letter word, but those were actually some really good ones, so…kudos!” **The room plunged into darkness, and the monsters found themselves back in the Scoreboard Elevator. As predicted, everyone except for Amira and Brian currently had $1000 from getting the question correct.

**“If you think this dimension is scary, just be glad you’re not in my parents’. Cause let me tell you, there are no words to describe just how batshit insane that place is. And that’s AFTER my mom took it over. I’m not sure even Zoe would’ve been able to handle it if my fucked up excuse of a father was still in charge.”**

Zoe shuddered. “I think I brushed close to it once back thousands of years ago when I was still Z’Gord,” she admitted in a small voice. “I NEVER want to go anywhere near that place again.”

The monsters stared at her, trying to comprehend something so terrifying that even an eldritch abomination at the height of her power and without her newfound sense of morality feared it. “Wow…” even Liam was at a loss for words. Before anybody could say anything, the elevator doors swung open and the number 3 appeared.

**“What’s the better known title for the painting _La Gioconda?_”**

  1. The Last Supper
  2. The Mona Lisa
  3. The Birth of Venus
  4. The Scream

Liam smirked. “An easy question.”

Vera scowled. “Speak for yourself!” she hissed.

“After spending so many hours with Liam, there’s no way I can get this wrong,” Brian commented dryly.

“…I think it’s this?” Zoe thought aloud. “I think?”

**“And the correct answer is…”**

  1. ** The Mona Lisa**

Green check marks appeared under Zoe’s, Brian’s, and Liam’s plushies, while red Xs appeared above everyone else’s. **“Time to show you my definition of entertainment,” **Oz hissed. The hallway suddenly vanished, briefly replaced by a frenzied and chaotic version of the slideshow they had seen in the beginning of the game, before they found themselves in Killing Room 217. The shadow being decided to choose **“GIFTS” **as the minigame this time.

**“You can relax now,” **Oz reassured them. **“I’m just gonna give you all a gift! Nothing to worry about!”**

Damien snorted. “Yeah, right!” he scoffed.

Vera rolled her eyes. “Please don’t take us for fools,” she added.

Lightning flashed, and a chest of boxes wrapped in different colored gift paper and ribbons appeared. **“All of you pick a gift. The only way you’ll die is if you refuse to pick one, in which case you’re a fucking moron and only have yourself to blame.”**

“As much as I want to scold Oz being a jerk, I…really can’t say he’s wrong in this case,” Vicky admitted.

**“Quit wasting my time and pick a gift,” **Oz growled.

Amira, Vera, Vicky, and Damien each picked a different gift. The gift boxes opened, revealing that everyone had won $50…except for Vera. Vera had received a knife with a skull engraved on the hilt.

**“Huh…looks like you got a Sacrificial Knife,” **Oz remarked. **“It might look scary, but it’s actually just a regular old knife. Nothing magical or powerful about it. That’s not the reason you should fear it, though.”**

“Oh, no…” Vera groaned.

**“The reason why you should fear that knife is because I’m about to force you to cut one of your fingers off with it,” **the dark being explained in a smug tone. A ghostly hand appeared in front of Vera. **“Choose one of your fingers to cut off, or you die.”**

“Urrrrgggghhhh…” the gorgon growled as she chose to cut off the second finger. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

**“That’s cause you probably should,” **Oz drawled as he brought them back to the elevator. The scoreboard showed that Zoe had $2000, Amira had $50, Vera had $1000, Brian had $1000, Liam had $2000, Vicky had $1050, and Damien had $1050.

“I am sucking…” Amira muttered as the elevator doors opened and Oz prepared the fourth question.

**“What color is St. James Place on a standard _Monopoly _board?”**

  1. Red
  2. Yellow
  3. Green
  4. Orange

“Oh, thank fuck…” Damien muttered. “An easy question.”

Vera, on the other hand, was staring at her screen with growing dread. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“What?” Amira asked in concern.

“I can’t pick the second answer choice!” Vera hissed in fury. “Because I cut off the middle finger, I can’t pick the second answer choice! There’s a giant finger over the answer!”

“Why are you worried, though?” Brian asked. “This question’s easy, we literally played this a few days ago.”

“That’s not the point!” Vera snarled. “What if there’s a question in the future where the answer is the second one? I’ll be screwed no matter what!”

**“And that’s the beauty of the Sacrificial Knife,” **Oz chuckled menacingly. **“Better hope you get as many right as you can, Vera…”**

“Gah…” she growled. Fortunately, she knew the answer to this question, and it wasn’t the one that corresponded to the finger. She clicked it, determined not to let this minor setback get the best of her.

**“Who said…”**

  1. ** Orange**

Green check marks appeared under every plushie. **“I need to stop giving you easy questions,” **Oz muttered as he vanished the question and replaced it briefly with a glowing purple 5.

“I’m kind of surprised none of us has died yet,” Vicky remarked. “Outside of, you know, that first round.”

**“Give it time…” **Oz retorted as he put up the next question.

**“What is Hong Kong’s official name?”**

  1. The People’s Democratic Republic of Hong Kong
  2. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China
  3. The Chinese Kingdom of Hong Kong
  4. Hong Kong Special Independence Unit

Everyone stared blankly at the answer choices. “What the fuck…” Brian muttered.

“How do you even remember all this?” Liam marveled.

“I didn’t even know Hong Kong had an official name!” Zoe exclaimed.

**“Did you pick…”**

  1. ** Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China**

Only two people got the question correct this time: Amira and Vicky. “I…completely guessed,” Amira admitted. “That answer was so out there, so batshit insane, that I HAD to pick it.”

“That’s pretty much how it went down for me,” Vicky agreed.

Vera scowled. “I would’ve gotten it right, but that stupid finger thing screwed me over!” she complained.

**“If you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of absolutely nobody giving a shit,” **Oz sneered. **“Time for some consequences.”**

Oz plunged the hall into darkness and brought them all to room 303. To everyone’s worry, the fear entity had chosen to repeat the **“MIND MELD” **game from earlier. They had all managed to survive the game last time…but everyone knew that things could easily turn out VERY differently.

**“You know the drill, I’m not gonna explain this shit a second time,” **Oz growled. **“The topic this time is A Member of the Fellowship of the Ring from _Lord of the Rings.”_**

The monsters looked at each other shiftily and suspiciously, all thinking about their possible answer choices, trying to decide whether an obvious or a more obscure choice would be wiser in the long run. One by one, cards began to appear above each plushie, just like last time.

**“And let’s see who managed to win the prediction game.”**

The cards flipped over, revealing:

Zoe: Gimli

Vera: Aragorn

Brian: Frodo

Liam: Pippin

Vicky: Legolas

Damien: Gimli

Amira: Pippin

Zoe’s, Liam’s, Damien’s, and Amira’s cards all lit up. The first three all let out loud groans or exclamations of denial, while Amira grinned in triumph.

“God dammit!” Damien ranted. “Somebody else just HAD to pick Gimli!”

“Noooooooooo!!!!” Zoe wailed.

“Ugh…and here I thought Pippin would be far too obscure for anyone else to pick. Well played, Amira,” Liam grudgingly applauded.

**“Oh, thank God. I was honestly worried that all of you would survive. But, hey! Turns out I had nothing to worry about.”**

White Xs scratched themselves onto the Zoe, Liam, and Damien plushies as all of them were thrown to the forefront. The plushies all violently exploded, turning into ghosts. And this time, Oz wouldn’t show them any mercy.

**“About time we had some deaths,” **Oz muttered as he brought them back to the Scoreboard elevator. Back in the wooden compartment, the monsters could see that Zoe had a rather impressive $3000 despite being dead, Amira had boosted herself up to $2550 thanks to the Killing Bonus from the Mind Meld game, Vera had $2000 and was still holding the knife, Brian had $2000, Liam also had $3000 and had become a ghost, Vicky was in the lead with $3050, and Damien had $2050 and was currently dead.

**“Blah blah blah, you’re a ghost, blah blah blah, can still win the game, you’ve heard all this shit before,” **Oz drawled as he opened the doors. A flaming purple 6 appeared in the hallway, followed by:

**“It looks like a raccoon-cat thing and comes out at night, so it’s gotta be the…”**

  1. Wah-Wah
  2. Hee-Hee
  3. Nay-Nay
  4. Aye-Aye

Snickers broke out among the monsters as they stared at the absurdity of the answers. “Pfffttt…” Damien spluttered, desperately trying not to break down in hysterics. “What the fuck is this question even?”

Liam looked like a part of him was dying on the inside. “Somebody was actually inane enough to actually name an animal one of these?” he asked incredulously. “I fear for the collective IQ of humanity.”

“I think this is probably my favorite question out of all the ones Oz has asked so far,” Zoe commented, her many mouths stretched into delighted grins.

“Oh yeah, this question is just such a beautiful mess,” Amira agreed with a smirk. The monsters all picked a random answer, as none of them had any clue which one was correct whatsoever.

**“Did you pick…”**

  1. ** Aye-Aye**

The only check marks that appeared this time were under Brian’s and Vera’s plushies. “For once, I’m actually glad I got my finger sliced off,” Vera remarked as red Xs appeared above everyone else’s plushies.

**“I want to show you something,” **Oz growled as he zoomed them forward and opened one of the hotel rooms, Killing Room 420. More than one monster rolled their eyes at the joke, but their attention was swiftly diverted by the large pile of money on the floor. This time, however, the name of the game was **“DONATIONS.”**

**“I’m in a generous mood,” **Oz proclaimed as he brought up Amira’s and Vicky’s plushies. **“You each get $500.”**

“Thanks…I guess?” Amira asked warily.

**“Give some of that money to your friend,” **the embodiment of fear instructed. **“The person with the most money…WILL DIE.”**

“Ohhhhhhhhhh…” Vicky murmured. Inside her head, she thought, “…maybe I should…”

**“…but there’s a catch,” **Oz interrupted her train of thought. **“If one of you ends up with $800 or more, I will kill the OTHER person instead.”**

“…never mind,” Vicky shook her head.

**“Make your choice.”**

Amira and Vera began eyeing each other suspiciously, trying to gauge each other’s expressions and predict their plans. The next few seconds were surprisingly silent aside from some faint whispering among the monsters and the occasional show support from Vera and Damien for their significant others. Amira was the first to submit her answer, followed by Vicky a few seconds later.

**“Let’s see who’s better with handling their money,” **Oz declared. Amira’s was the first to go, giving $299 to Vicky’s plushie, raising her total up to $799. Vicky’s went next, giving $366 to Amira’s plushie. Amira’s total was $567, and Vicky’s was $433. Leaving the Frankengirl as the winner.

“Dammit!” Amira cursed as her cash value turned red. “I honestly thought Vicky wouldn’t risk giving that much money to me!”

“Maybe before I met Damien I wouldn’t have,” Vicky admitted, before she broke into a grin. “But ever since I started dating him, I’ve decided to be a little more…risky!”

“That’s my girl!” Damien declared with a grin as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.

Vera shook her head. “I’d say you’re a bad influence on Vicky, Damien, but considering who won this particular round…”

**“Well, at least you can buy yourself a nice coffin with that cash!” **Oz suggested as he scratched a white X onto the Amira plushie. Throwing it to the forefront, the dark entity froze the plushie in ice and shattered it to pieces, a ghost rising from the ashes.

“Yeesh…” Amira shook her head. “Did you have to freeze it of all things?”

Back in the elevator, Zoe still had only $3000, Amira now had $3117, Vera had $3000 and the knife, Brian had $3000, Liam had $3000, Vicky was in the lead with $3483, and Damien lagged behind with $2050.

“Lot of us with $3000,” Brian observed.

**“Taking away the fact that we’re playing a murder-based trivia game right now, I wonder which one of our classmates would make the best plushie?” **Oz wondered.** “Personally, I’d have to go with Zoe or Scott, but that’s just me.”**

“Aww…” Zoe cooed, “that’s so sweet! Thanks, Oz!”

“I…can’t disagree with that, honestly,” Vera admitted.

“I mean, I’m not romantically interested in Scott or anything, but even I have to admit that a Scott plushie would be adorable as all heck,” Vicky commented.

“Scott is the definition of a true bro,” Brian added with a smile.

The elevator doors swung open and the number 7 appeared in the hallway, followed by:

**“What am I doing if I’m nictitating?”**

  1. Stealing
  2. Shaving
  3. Perusing
  4. Winking

“I have no idea what this word means,” Liam sighed. “And I delight in looking up obscure words in the name of breaking away from the mainstream.”

Damien threw his hands up in the air. “He has to be making this shit up!” he exclaimed.

“Am I the only one who thinks this word sounds kinda…dirty?” Brian questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, God, if Polly was here, she’d find a way to MAKE it dirty if it wasn’t already!” Amira muttered.

“I’m just gonna pick this one because I like the idea of it,” Zoe decided.

**“And the correct answer is…”**

  1. ** Nictitating**

Green check marks appeared under Zoe’s and Damien’s plushies. “Winking is the cutest thing ever,” Zoe gushed. “So there’s no way I wouldn’t pick that answer.”

“Yeah, Vicky’s the only reason why I picked that answer for my guess,” Damien grinned at her. “Thanks!”

Vicky winked. “No problem!” she replied before sighing. “I almost picked that, but I panicked at the last minute!”

“Join the club!” Amira agreed, clearly frustrated with herself.

**“Come with me!” **Oz commanded as he plunged the hallway into darkness and transported them to Killing Room 548. The monsters immediately took notice of the fact that, unlike every other room they had seen in the hotel during either iteration of the game, there were two small elevators on the opposite wall. Oz’s shadowy hand put up the words **“DUMB WAITERS” **on a screen.

**“You’d be surprised by how many people are afraid of falling to their deaths in elevators,” **the shadowy being commented. **“Or maybe it’s just the claustrophobia talking.”**

Vera’s, Brian’s, and Vicky’s plushies appeared in the room. **“All of you will now pick an elevator door,” **Oz explained. **“If you all pick the same side, you all live.”**

“That’s good, right?” Vicky asked. “Everyone living is good.”

**“But if there is a SPLIT decision, I will kill everyone on the HEAVIER side,” **Oz continued. **“Now make your choice. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves. But can you really trust your friends? Are you sure that you should?” **he finished with a menacing hiss.

Vera, Brian, and Vicky looked at the elevators indecisively. “All right, guys,” Vicky began. “We can all make it through if we all agree to take a particular side and stick to it.”

“I’m down with that, but which side?” Brian asked, before his eyes suddenly narrowed. “Also how do I know I can trust you?”

“Our survival is on the line,” Vera pointed out. “There is no time for silly games.”

“Okay, just so we’re clear, we’re all going left?” Brian clarified.

“Yes, left,” Vicky confirmed.

“Very well,” Vera agreed as she clicked on her choice. The other two players stared at her warily, surprised and more than a little skeptical of how she had acquiesced to their agreement so readily, then made their own choices.

**“Let’s see what fate has decided.”**

The elevator doors swung open again, revealing that all three of the plushies had chosen the same elevator…on the RIGHT side.

Vera blinked in shock. “Wait, really?”

“We all picked the OTHER elevator?” Vicky exclaimed.

“I…I have no words…” Brian gaped. “…just…wow…”

**“So let me get this straight,” **Oz’s voice interrupted, and for the first time since starting the round his tone sounded almost normal despite its unearthly and inhuman echoes. **“You all agreed to take the left elevator, you all decided to betray the others by picking the opposite elevator instead, but because all of you made that choice, you all ended up in the same elevator anyway with the exact same result as if none of you broke your word.”**

"I…guess?” Vicky answered uncertainly.

**“For fuck’s sake!” **Oz spluttered. **“You can’t even backstab each other correctly!” **he grumbled, before removing the plushies from the Killing Grounds and taking them all to the Scoreboard elevator. Zoe now had $4000, Amira still had $3117, Vera had $3000, Brian had $3000, Liam had $3000, Vicky had $3483, and Damien had $3050. Vera, Brian, and Vicky were the only ones who still had living plushies.

**“People are afraid of the weirdest things,” **Oz remarked. **“I mean, being afraid of snakes and spiders is one thing, and I really do pity the poor sod who’s afraid of water and actually has to drink it to survive. But then you get to the ones that are straight-up WTF territory like being afraid of being watched by a duck, being afraid of objects specifically to your right, and fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of our mouth. Yes, there are actually official terms for those. And don’t even get me started on the fear of long words. I think it’s called Hippopotomonstro…oh, who the fuck even cares!”**

“Does anybody else want to know what Oz’s phobias would look like if they actually took on the shape of those weird fears?” Zoe asked.

“I do have to admit that it would be quite interesting,” Liam remarked as the doors opened to the hallway and the eighth question.

**“Which fruit is native to Europe?”**

  1. Watermelons
  2. Raspberries
  3. Peaches
  4. Limes

Amira threw her hands up in frustration. “Once again, I have no idea!” she exclaimed.

Vera’s mouth tightened. She actually knew the answer to this, but she had been blocked from picking it. But there was no way that she would let herself pass that information to the others.

“I think I know this, actually!” Vicky realized.

“God, I hope not…” Vera muttered. Her instincts were telling her she had a bad feeling about what would happen if she was the only living person sent to the Killing Room.

**“Who said…”**

  1. ** Raspberries**

Three green check marks appeared, under Brian’s, Liam’s, and Vicky’s plushies. This time, Vera didn’t bother resisting the urge to curse at her misfortune. “I couldn’t answer that one because I got my finger sliced off!” she hissed.

**“One of you is still alive…” **Oz singled her out. **“Let’s go someplace fun.”**

Another frenzied slideshow transition later, and the monsters found themselves in Killing Room 666. And the moment Oz put up the words **“LOSER WHEEL”** on the screen, Zoe and the members of the Color Squad gasped.

“Oh, God…” Amira breathed. “Vera, I am so sorry for what is about to happen to you.”

“…you’re not gonna like what happens next,” Vicky warned.

“Damn, Oz, you’re actually bringing THAT one out?” Zoe exclaimed. “That is meeeeeeaan.”

“What are you…” Lightning flashed, interrupting Vera’s sentence, and her jaw dropped in horror. A wheel had appeared with a similar appearance to the one used in _Wheel of Fortune_…except every wedge had the word DEATH written clearly on it, as well as a different method of execution. The only exceptions were tiny slivers a single space each located in between each wedge, with the word LIFE written on them instead.

The moment Damien saw the Loser Wheel, he immediately broke into hysterics. “HA HA HA HA HA!!!” the demon cackled as he collapsed onto the floor laughing. “You. Are. FUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED!”

“What…what…what…” Vera spluttered, her composure completely shattered. “This isn’t fair at all!”

“Glad I’m not you right now,” Brian remarked.

“I don’t see you getting out of this one,” Liam agreed, not sounding very apologetic at all. “Sorry.”

**“This is what you get for being the only living person to get the question wrong,” **Mike replied, in a tone that made it all too clear that he didn’t give a fuck. **“Good luck!”**

“I fucking hate you all…” Vera grumbled as she spun the wheel. The wheel spun rapidly for several seconds before slowly coming to a stop…right onto a wedge that said “DEATH by Trap.” “Dammit!”

**“You know, I used to absolutely fucking HATE this minigame with a passion, but I suddenly have a whole new appreciation for it after seeing it from the other side!” **Oz commented cheerfully. He brought up the Vera plushie into the forefront, and the gorgon could only watch as her plushie was violently crushed in a metal trap and turned into a ghost.

“Damn,” Damien whistled. “That was brutal even by my standards!”

“I’m still calling bullshit on this!” Vera snarled.

“Yeah, it is kinda bullshit…” Amira agreed, trying not to hide a smile. “But even I have to admit it is pretty funny.”

At the Scoreboard elevator, Zoe’s cash count was $4000, Amira’s was $3117, Vera’s $3000, Brian’s was $4000, Liam’s was $4000, Vicky’s was $4483, and Damien had $3050.

**“The good news is that you now have all your fingers again. And that knife doesn’t have to leave the game. Choose someone to give your gift to as a…WILL, of sorts,” **Oz instructed. A crafty look appeared in Vera’s eyes as she looked over to Brian and Vicky, both of whom were making gestures trying to deter her from passing the knife onto them.

“Since Vicky has the most money and killed my girlfriend, I think I’ll give my knife to _her_,” Vera declared. Vicky groaned loudly as the Sacrificial Knife was passed onto her.

“I don’t have to cut my finger off right now, do I?” the Frankengirl asked worriedly.

**“No,” **Oz replied, and she let out a sigh of relief. **“But if I were you, I wouldn’t get the next question wrong. Speaking of which…”**

The elevator doors swung open and a fiery 9 appeared in the hallway, followed by…

**“What’s the name for the economic union comprised of Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands?”**

  1. Luxenbel
  2. Belluxlands
  3. Benelux
  4. Nexelgium

“…I might actually know this one!” Brian murmured in surprise.

“I’m just going to pick this one because I like how it sounds,” Vicky decided.

“Ooh! Ooh!” Zoe declared excitedly. “I know this! I know this cause I ate the sanity of a bigoted jackass from Luxembourg a few days ago!”

“Fuck, this hasn’t been a good round for me at all,” Damien muttered.

“You’re not the only one,” Amira agreed with a sigh.

**“Did you pick…”**

  1. ** Benelux**

Green check marks appeared under Zoe’s, Vera’s, Brian’s, and Vicky’s plushies, while red Xs appeared above everyone else’s.

“Hah!” Vicky cheered. “Completely guessed and got it right!”

Vera smirked. “I run multinational businesses, some of them legit and others not so much. I’d be a fool if I didn’t keep tabs of things like this.”

**“Only a ghost got it wrong,” **Oz observed. **“God dammit.”**

The question vanished, and the number 10 appeared in the hallway. **“So,” **the dark entity mused, **“some of you have actually managed to make it this far. I’m impressed. But as fun as this has been, I think it’s time I stopped toying with you. Too many of you are still alive.” **Oz’s voice suddenly deepened into an inhuman snarl. **“LET’S FIX THAT, HERE AND NOW.”**

The floor suddenly cracked and crumbled underneath them, sending them all plummeting into a black abyss. “NOT AGAIN!!!!” Liam exclaimed as they felt themselves fall through the nothingness. After a seeming eternity, they felt their descent slow to a gentle stop. The lights flickered on, revealing that they had fallen into a basement of some kind. Brick walls surrounded them, and old pipes snaked through the walls and ceiling. There was an empty space on the opposite side, which also lit up as Oz placed the words **“LOCK AND KEY” **on a screen.

**“You’ve been very resilient so far,” **Oz congratulated mockingly. **“But only one of you can survive.”**

Two glass tanks appeared in a flash of lightning, the left holding Brian’s plushie and the right holding Vicky’s. Six keys, each with a different shape, appeared in front of the tanks. **“Only one of these keys will open the lock to your tank,” **Oz explained. Water began to flood into the tanks, filling roughly about a fourth. **“Pick the right key before you drown.”**

Brian and Vicky gazed uncertainly at the array of keys. “I’ll pick…the one with the angel wings coming out of the head,” Brian decided.

“I guess I’ll pick the silver key with the skull head?” Vicky requested hesitatingly.

The two keys appeared in front of each tank…and a red X manifested over both of them. “Dammit!” Brian muttered as more water poured into the tanks, which were now about a half full.

**“I know it’s rude for me to tell people what to do, but pick another key unless you want to drown,” **Oz ordered.

“We know!” Brian growled. He decided to pick a golden key with a crown on its head this time, while Vicky chose a rather plain brass key with nothing but a ring for a head. Just like before, Oz X’d out both keys as incorrect. More water poured into the tank, to the point that the plushies were now starting to be submerged in the water.

**“One last chance…”** Oz’s voice hissed sinisterly all around them. **“Who will win? And who will die? It all comes down to this final decision.”**

“Uhhh…uh…uh…” Mastering her nervousness, Vicky chose a steel key with the head shaped like a plague mask. Brian, with no other options left, chose a key with a screaming face for a head. A red X appeared over the key with the screaming face…and a green check mark appeared over the plague mask key. “YES!” Vicky cheered, high-fiving her boyfriend as the lid of Vicky’s tank opened and her plushie was lifted out. Both tanks filled completely with water until cracks began to form on the walls, drowning Brian’s plushie completely.

**“And we have a winner!” **Oz declared triumphantly as the zombie’s plushie turned into a ghost. **“Now that only one of you is still alive, you know what that means…” **the basement suddenly blackened out, and everyone felt themselves be transported across space by Oz’s power. And although they could see nothing but darkness around them, every single one of them knew where they were headed.

It was time for the Final Round to begin.

/

A/N: You’d think writing these chapters would be easy. And you’d be very wrong. This somehow ended up being 18 pages on Word. Yikes.

I absolutely had to include the “finger-slicing” that is so iconic of “Trivia Murder Party”…but I didn’t want to have to juggle around and try to remember the removed fingers of multiple people. Fortunately, the Knife Gift (which actually does exist in TMP2) makes it much easier for me since it usually only affects the person who gets it. And having her finger sliced off ABSOLUTELY affected Vera…dat Loser Wheel.

Hope you guys enjoyed!


	5. Round 2, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to begin the final round. And I can assure you, this time Oz won’t be as merciful with his Final Round questions.
> 
> To maximize the experience, I’ve decided to add timestamps to loop the different parts of the Trivia Murder 2 Final Round theme that roughly correlate to how they would play during the actual game. I highly recommend following along these timestamps, as the music plays a huge role in what makes the final round so exciting.

Chapter 5 – Round 2, Part 2

Once again, the monsters found themselves in the same vast chamber of Oz’s recreated hotel, standing upon the exact same balcony. Even though they knew exactly how the final stage of the name would be played this time around, they still felt a thrill of anticipation at the chase that was to come. And just as it had before, the dark, intense music from before began to play around them, signaling the beginning of the final round.

**[[NOTE: Begin playing Trivia Murder Party 2 Final Round theme by Andy Poland (use the official YouTube video). For maximum immersion and setting the mood, begin looping 0:00-0:48 (Here we go again)]]**

**“Congratulations are in order for making it this far,” **Oz declared. **“But will you push through to the end, or will someone else claim your life for their own?”**

Everyone watched as the living Vicky plushie was moved a few rows into the chamber next to the opposite wall, 12 spaces away from the other side. The monsters immediately noticed that Mike had moved the plushie in farther than he had moved Vera's plushie in originally, but before they could protest, the monster plushies were moved into place, this time in the same positions that they were in after Vera had answered the first question in the last round. Zoe's and Brian’s plushies were both 18 spaces away from the exit with Zoe’s on top of Brian’s, while Liam and Vera’s plushies were both 19 spaces away. The rest of the ghosts were left at the leftmost edge of the room, 21 spaces away.

**“Here’s your first category.”**

**MARIE KONDO’S RULES OF TIDYING**

“Imagine your ideal lifestyle first”, “Tidy every space twice”, _“Remove the thing you love first”_

Everyone stared blankly at the question. “What the FUCK?” Damien exploded. “Who the fuck is Marie Kondo, and who the fuck even cares?”

“…Oz is trying to kill us all, isn’t he?” Liam groaned.

“Wouldn’t be surprised at this point,” Brian agreed gloomily with his boyfriend.

**Imagine your ideal lifestyle first**, XXXXXX, XXXXXX

Vicky: ✓X (to 11)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 16)

Brian: ✓XX (to 17)

Vera: ✓X✓ (to 17)

Liam: ✓XX (to 18)

Amira: X✓X (to 20)

Damien: XX✓ (to 20)

The Vicky plushie crawled forward once space, and the ghostly plushies followed a second later, letting out a haunting echo as they did so. “Wow…” Vicky muttered, “a lot of us sucked with that one.”

“Please tell me not every question is going to be like this one,” Amira groaned.

“I’m just happy I got two of those right,” Zoe remarked with a relieved smile.

**“Next question,” **Oz growled.

**[[NOTE: For maximum immersion, loop 0:48 - 1:36 (Not only ghosts behind you)]]**

**CAFFIENATED BEVERAGES**

Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, _Orange Crush_

“Doesn’t seem too difficult…” Liam mused.

“The fact that this question seems this easy only makes me suspicious,” Vera commented with her eyes narrowed.

“Do all these sodas actually HAVE caffeine is the question,” Zoe muttered. “I honestly never really thought about it.”

“Me neither,” Vicky admitted.

**Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew**, XXXXXX

Vicky: ✓✓ (to 9)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 14)

Brian: ✓✓✓ (to 14)

Vera: ✓✓✓ (to 14)

Liam: ✓✓X (to 16)

Amira: ✓✓✓ (to 17)

Damien: ✓✓X (to 18)

“Oh, thank God!” Amira exhaled. “I had a feeling Orange Crush was wrong.”

Vera smirked at her girlfriend. “Of course the best and brightest girls here wouldn’t fall for that trap!”

Damien scowled. “So you know a random detail about a random soda,” he drawled. “Congratulations, you’re a fucking genius.”

Amira merely grinned. “Damn right!”

**“Oh, a genius, are you?” **Oz interrupted mockingly. **“Then surely you’ll know the answer to this next one.”**

**COMMON VARIETIES OF FIG**

Cobra, Gold Katarina, _Papa John_

“…fuck!” Amira cursed.

“Isn’t that last one a pizza place or something?” Brian asked dully.

“I…think?” Liam replied, sounding equally baffled.

“I think the real question here is why and how the fuck Oz even knows this shit!” Damien exclaimed.

Zoe smirked. “We eldritch cuties have big brains to remember things!” she declared proudly, before her confidence vanished, “…but I actually don’t know the answer to this either.”

“At this point, I’m just hoping to put some decent space between me and that darkness,” Vera muttered.

XXXXXX, XXXXXX, **Papa John**

Vicky: XX (at 9)

Zoe: ✓XX (to 13)

Brian: X✓X (to 13)

Vera: ✓XX (to 13)

Liam: ✓✓X (to 14)

Amira: ✓XX (to 16)

Damien: ✓✓✓ (to 15)

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Brian spluttered. “Papa John is actually a type of fig?”

Vicky shook her head. “I didn’t even get that answer and I still managed to get this completely wrong.”

Vera spluttered. “How the hell did DAMIEN of all people get that perfect?”

Damien grinned. “Cause that answer was too fucking good not to pick, and after that I just didn’t give a fuck about the other two answers. Had no idea that was actually the correct answer, but fuck it! I’ll take what I can get!”

Vicky kissed him on the cheek. “That’s my demon baby!” she cheered.

Damien’s cheeks turned even redder than they normally did. “Vicky, don’t embarrass me like that!” he complained, all too aware of the smirks and coos coming from the others.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Oz chose that moment to intervene. **“Oh, what a disappointing performance from most of you!” **he cackled, his voice dripping with sadistic delight. **“And I have something in store that will make you feel just a little bit worse about your failure.”**

The farthest edge of the room was suddenly plunged into the same terrible darkness that had stricken the monsters with unnatural dread in the last round. Moving just as relentlessly as it had last time, the darkness swallowed up the first four rows of the room. Though the monsters unfamiliar with Oz’s realm or his version of the game now knew what to expect, that knowledge didn’t make any of them feel any better, now that they had seen a glimpse of the terrors that lurked within the shadows. And just like it had before, the ominous music began to pick up in intensity, a sign that the final round had now _truly _begun.

The Darkness: 18 spaces from the exit.

**“Who will be the first sacrifice to the shadows?” ** Oz hissed.

**[[NOTE: Begin looping 1:36-2:24 (The Thrill Thickens)]]**

**GALAXIES**

Tadpole Galaxy, Andromeda, _Sombrero_

Zoe’s eyes lit up with delight. “Ooh, ooh, I know this!” she cheered. “Eldritch knowledge for the win! I used to think about eating galaxies whole before I realized that I didn’t like being an evil deity anymore.”

“…for which we’re all incredibly grateful for,” Vera deadpanned.

Liam, meanwhile was looking at the galaxy names with disbelief. “There’s no way…” he muttered with disgust. “There’s no way anybody would actually give cosmic entities as vast and mysterious as galaxies such…crude and mundane names!”

Brian sighed. “How much do you want to bet they did?” he asked dully.

Vicky, on the other hand, looked much happier. “I’ve looked at galaxies a few times back in Monster middle school. I actually know this!”

Amira snorted. “That makes one of us,” she muttered.

**Tadpole Galaxy, Andromeda, Sombrero Galaxy**

Vicky: ✓✓ (to 7)

Zoe: ✓✓✓ (to 10)

Brian: X✓✓ (to 11)

Vera: X✓✓ (to 12)

Liam: X✓X (to 13)

Amira: X✓✓ (to 14)

Damien: X✓✓ (to 13)

“Yes!” Vicky whooped. “Got it right!”

Liam threw his arms up in disgust. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered. “There is actually something called a Tadpole Galaxy. I can feel my opinion of the universe and the creativity of humanity sinking into the void.”

“Ooh, maybe I can find it!” Zoe chirped. “Which void?”

The vampire rolled his eyes. “Never mind.”

“I had a feeling that at least one of those bizarre options was actually real,” Vera commented dryly. “I just picked the ridiculous option that actually had some class.”

Amira smirked at her gorgon girlfriend. “Did you always think sombreros have class, or is the only reason why you think that is because I wore one at that Mexican festival we went to?”

Vera struggled to keep the blush off her face. “Well…that is…” she spluttered.

Fortunately for her, the sound and sight of the darkness advancing down the chamber was enough of a distraction to draw her friends’ and girlfriend’s attention away from her.

The Darkness: 16 spaces from the exit.

**“Next question,” **Oz growled.

**WORDS THAT ARE “NOT” BEAR**

Bear, Bear, _Bear_

Everyone stared blankly at the question, but for the first time it was for the exact opposite reason than the one that normally stunned them into silence. “Is this…is this a fucking joke?” Damien finally asked emotionlessly.

“This is so insanely easy that my brain is second-guessing myself wondering if there’s some trick,” Brian mumbled.

“Oz has to be trying to mentally fuck with us,” Amira commented dryly. “There’s no other reason he’d throw in a freebie after kicking our asses with the last couple of questions.”

Vera smirked. “If he was trying to outwit an Oberlin, he’s failed,” she boasted.

XXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX

Vicky: ✓✓ (to 5)

Zoe: ✓✓✓ (to 7)

Brian: ✓✓✓ (to 8)

Vera: ✓✓✓ (to 9)

Liam: ✓✓✓ (to 10)

Amira: ✓✓✓ (to 11)

Damien: ✓✓✓ (to 10)

“The fact that Oz gave us a question this easy only makes me worried about what he’s got planned,” Vicky muttered as her plushie charged forward, and all the ghostly plushies rushed in to close the gap behind her.

“At this point, I’m fully expecting Oz to fuck us again,” Damien agreed with his girlfriend as the darkness advanced another two spaces. Oz’s unexpected generosity had given them a little room to breathe, but considering that the eldritch fear entity had spiked the difficulty of the questions compared to the last round, none of the monsters felt any real relief.

The Darkness: 14 spaces from the exit.

**[[NOTE: Begin looping 2:24-3:12 (The Dark Pressure)]]**

**ANIMALS STATISTICALLY LIKELY TO OUTLIVE A MOOSE**

Giraffe, Fox, _Baboon_

“…and there’s the dicking, right on schedule,” Damien deadpanned.

“How is ANYONE supposed to know this?” Vicky exclaimed. “My parents are mad scientists who’ve studied animals for years and they’ve never bothered to study crap like this!”

“…I’m a former eldritch deity with centuries of knowledge and, once again, I have NO idea whatsoever!” Zoe threw her tentacle and hand up in the air in frustration.

Amira shook her head in disbelief. “Where do you even GET this stuff from, Oz?” she muttered.

Liam sighed. “Guess it’s time to randomly guess. Again.”

**Giraffe**, XXXXXX, **Baboon**

Vicky: XX (at 5)

Zoe: ✓XX (to 6)

Brian: XXX (at 8)

Vera: ✓XX (to 8)

Liam: X✓X (to 9)

Amira: ✓XX (to 10)

Damien: XXX (to 10)

**“Ha ha ha ha ha!” **Oz howled with laughter as only a few of the ghost plushies crawled forward. **“That was an excellent performance…if you were trying to FAIL!”**

“Fuck yourself, Oz!” Damien flipped the bird in the air as the shadows swallowed up the next two rows. Amira and Damien both tensed as they realized just how close they were to the ever-advancing shadows. If they completely failed the next question, their plushies were doomed.

The Darkness: 12 spaces from the exit.

**“That ghost is right behind you…” **Oz growled the warning, causing Vicky to jump as she realized that Zoe was only one space away from claiming her life force.

**DIVISIBLE BY 7**

265, 112, _468_

“Oh, thank God!” Brian declared with relief. “A question we actually have a chance of getting right!”

Vera studied the answers intently, a slight frown on her face. “This shouldn’t be too hard to figure out,” she mused.

Amira scowled. “I hate quick mental math!” she complained. “I need to think about this shit before I can answer it!”

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Damien roared. “FUCK MATH!”

XXXXXX, **112**, XXXXXX

Vicky: ✓✓ (to 3)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 4)

Brian: ✓✓✓ (to 5)

Vera: ✓✓✓ (to 5)

Liam: ✓✓✓ (to 6)

Amira: ✓✓X (to 8)

Damien: ✓X✓ (to 8)

“Oh, shoot!” Zoe slapped her forehead as Vicky’s plushie moved forward 2 spaces, and the ghost plushies chased after it with the eldritch cutie’s stopping only 1 space behind. “I miscalculated on that last one, dammit!”

Amira groaned. “I did the same thing, Zoe.”

Damien smirked. “I just went with none of them and I think I did better than what I would’ve done if I’d actually tried.”

Vera rolled her eyes. “You barely even think most things to begin with!”

The demon prince’s smirk widened into a full-blown grin. “Hey, except for my hairstyling hobby, how often do I actually need to give a fuck about thinking things through in school?”

“I really want to give this answer a rebuttal, but considering what your usual activities in school are…” Liam shook his head as the darkness advanced two spaces, stopping shortly behind Damien’s and Amira’s plushies a second time.

The Darkness: 10 spaces from the exit.

**IKEA PRODUCTS**

Nesho drapes, Rheon stool, _Maisie bookcase_

“…Oh fuck off, Oz!” Surprisingly, this time it wasn’t Damien who had uttered the curse, but Amira. “Is this even English?”

“Considering that IKEA is a Swedish company, I highly doubt it,” Liam drawled.

Vicky threw her hands up in the air. “Yeah, I have no clue at all,” the frankengirl scowled. “I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been to an IKEA.”

“So time to randomly guess again?” Brian asked with a raised eyebrow. “Fantastic.”

XXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX

Vicky: X✓ (to 2)

Zoe: X✓X (to 3)

Brian: ✓✓X (to 3)

Vera: X✓✓ (to 3)

Liam: XX✓ (to 5)

Amira: ✓XX (to 7)

Damien: XXX (at 8)

“Wait, it was NONE of them?” Damien exclaimed in disbelief. “What the FUCK?”

Vera scowled. “What do you expect?” she retorted. “Oz is clearly going out of his way to make things as painful for us as possible. I’m frankly amazed I got two.”

“Does anybody even bother looking at the names of the things there?” Brian wondered. “I sure as hell don’t.”

Vicky sighed with relief. “I’ll take one,” she muttered as her plushie inched forward. “Now I’m within range of the exit.” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Wait a minute, Damien, you’re about to…”

“OH FUCK!” Damien exclaimed as the darkness hungrily covered the next two rows. The shadows advanced onto the stationary Damien plushie, which let out a terrified scream as it was completely consumed into oblivion, leaving no trace remaining. “Fucking dammit!” he cursed. “I’m the first one to fucking lose!”

**“All your hard work, the sum of your efforts, reduced to nothing but shadows,” **Oz hissed, as if rubbing salt in the wound.

The Darkness: 8 spaces away from the exit.

**[[NOTE: Begin looping 3:12-4:00 (No Escape)]]**

Just as it had before, the massive black iron gate slammed down in front of the exit, the final barrier to freedom and victory that looked every bit as terrifying as it had been last time. The music again escalated in intensity, signaling that the final stage of the round had truly begun.

**“I’m not about to let you escape that easily,” **Oz growled. **“If you want to break free, then you need to get all three answers right.”**

**STUFF IN MISSOURI**

Kansas City, World’s Largest Pecan, _World’s Largest Basket_

**“And when I say all of them,” **the eldritch being snarled, **“I mean ALL OF THEM.”**

World’s Largest Basket

“Get the fuck out of here!” Amira exclaimed in disbelief, her flames rising up in agitation. “Who the FUCK even cares about what’s some random-ass state in the middle of fucking nowhere???”

Damien shrugged. “Hey, I already lost, I don’t have to give a fuck about Missouri or whatever the fuck Oz wants to ask.”

Zoe tilted her head curiously. “Now I’m wondering what the World’s Largest Pecan or Basket would actually look like,” she admitted. “I haven’t really seen a whole lot outside of Monstropolis.”

Vera narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “There’s something about one of those answers that makes me suspicious…” she muttered.

**“Hurry up!” **Oz growled. The monsters quickly submitted their answers.

**Kansas City, World’s Largest Pecan, **XXXXXX

Vicky: ✓XX (to 1)

Zoe: ✓X✓ (to 1)

Brian: X✓X (to 2)

Vera: ✓✓X (to 1)

Liam: XX✓ (to 4)

Amira: ✓X✓ (to 3)

“Yep, that went just as well as I expected,” Vicky sighed. Her plushie crawled up to the edge of the barrier, and then then the ghostly plushies followed, with Zoe’s and Vera’s plushies stopping just short of the gate as well. There was a flash of light and Zoe’s plushie came back to life, while Vicky’s and Vera’s plushies were both pushed back one row and Vicky’s was turned into a ghost.

“YES!” Zoe cheered. “I’m alive again!”

**“You’ve killed your friend!” **Oz remarked. **“Better get away while you still can!”**

Brian raised an eyebrow. “With how hard these questions have been?” he remarked. “Good luck.”

“Yeah, I don’t expect to hold onto this one for long,” the eldritch cutie admitted.

Vera scowled. Because she was lower on the order this time, anyone above her would get priority on coming back to life at the barrier. “I suppose I’ll have to get a perfect if I want to win a second time,” she thought as the darkness approached ever closer to the now huddled group of plushies.

The Darkness: 6 spaces from the exit.

**[[NOTE: Begin looping 4:00-end (The Window through Madness)]]**

The frenzied, hideous laughter that had haunted the monsters at the end of the last final round returned, a cold, unholy sound that seemed to cut deep into their ears and souls. The empty void of the darkness suddenly filled with over a hundred glowing red eyes, all glaring menacingly not just at the plushies, but also directly at the players themselves.

“Oh great, the glowing red eyes are back,” Amira drawled, trying her best to hide her nervousness.

**“The shadows are hungry. Escape while you can,” **Oz warned, before his voice suddenly deepened, becoming more eldritch and inhuman,** “OR JOIN IN THE FEAST.”**

**CANDY LAND LOCATIONS**

Marshmallow meadow, Ice cream sea, Chocolate swamp

“Candy Land?” Liam scoffed. “Seriously? You’re asking us to remember the details of a game that juvenile?”

“Hey!” Vicky protested. “Candy Land was one of my favorite things to play back when I was a kid!”

“But who would actually remember details in that game like locations?” Liam started to retort, before it hit him. “That’s why…it would make for…a good…trivia question…” his voice died down.

“I think you hit the nail on the head,” Vera snarked.

“I actually did like that game back when I was a kid,” Amira added, “but the only thing I remember is Candy Castle and that’s pretty much it.”

“What is Candy Land?” Zoe asked curiously.

“I’ll show it to you later,” Vicky promised.

XXXXXX, **Ice Cream Sea, Chocolate Swamp**

Vicky: X✓✓ (to 1)

Zoe: XXX (at 1)

Brian: ✓XX (to 1)

Vera: X✓✓ (to 1)

Liam: XXX (at 4)

Amira: X✓X (at 2)

**“Pathetic,” **Oz snarled in contempt. **“Absolutely PATHETIC!”**

Liam threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Of course. Of course the only answer I pick is the one that is completely wrong!”

Brian gently rubbed his boyfriend’s shoulder as Zoe gave the vampire a sympathetic look. “Yeah, I completely messed this up too.”

“I could have sworn Marshmallow Meadow was a location!” Vicky groaned.

Damien put an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder as she leaned into it. “Don’t worry about it, babe,” he said comfortingly, “I would’ve made the exact same mistake.”

Vicky’s and Vera’s ghostly plushies charged forward and crashed into the black iron gate, which repelled them both with a growl. Vicky’s plushie flashed back to life, pushing back all the others and turning Zoe’s plushie into a ghost in the process. The darkness surged forward, devouring Liam’s plushie with another terrified scream.

“Thank goodness those plushies are fake,” Liam shuddered. “I don’t want to think about what would happen if this was the real thing.”

The Darkness: 4 spaces from the exit.

By now, the entire area apart from the sliver of hallway that was still illuminated had fallen into darkness as well. More glowing red eyes appeared, not just in the darkness covering the chamber below, but also in the area above the balcony. The unseen monstrosities in the shadows stared hungrily at the monsters like predators waiting for the right moment to devour their prey.

And it wasn't just the other side. The monsters jolted as they realized that the area behind them was now filled with those same scarlet eyes, even more terrifying with how close they were. Several figures began to crawl out of the unseen horde just close enough to be made visible, and everyone jolted as they realized that the shadowy abominations had taken on the forms of creatures associated with phobias. A giant snake that slithered in to their left, a giant scorpion that snapped its pincers threateningly as it marched to their right, a massive spider that clicked its fangs menacingly as it crawled up from behind. Oz’s friends shuddered not just at the phobias themselves, but also at the implications for just how horrible he could have become if he had chosen evil instead of good.

“They were cuter last time I saw them,” Zoe mumbled.

“Give us an easier one, please?” Vicky pleaded.

**AKIRA KUROSAWA FILMS**

The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, My Neighbor Totoro

Vicky lowered her head down in defeat. “Nope.”

“Oh my God, WHY?” Amira’s flames billowed, matching her frustration. “Why are you doing this to us, Oz?”

“I haven’t heard of ANY of these films!” Zoe looked just as agitated as her friend.

Liam sighed and slapped his face with his hand. “I would have gotten this correct if I was still alive,” he muttered. “This only makes my defeat last turn even more aggravating.”

“I think we’re about to join you soon, Liam,” Brian glumly replied.

“I didn’t think Oz could ever have this kind of ruthlessness, even in something minor like a game,” Vera commented. There was irritation in her voice, to be sure, but also a newfound respect for the fearling that she had previously dismissed as little more than Amira’s close friend. “Well played.”

**The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood**, XXXXXX

Vicky: X✓✓ (at 1)

Zoe: ✓✓X (to 1)

Brian: ✓XX (to 1)

Vera: ✓✓X (to 1)

Amira: XX✓ (to 1)

“Dammit!” Zoe slapped her forehead. “I was so sure it was all of them!”

“I’ve never even heard of this person before,” Brian muttered.

“Wait a minute…” Amira took a closer look at the position of the plushies. “We always get pushed back whenever we try and fail to get past the gate. And the darkness moves two spaces every turn. Doesn’t that mean…?”

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh, FUCK!” Damien exclaimed. “He’s about to shit on ALL of you!”

“Shit,” Vera cursed with a scowl. “So close and yet so far. This is what I get for second-guessing myself and throwing away a potential win.”

Their complaints were interrupted by the sound of Oz’s laughter. It was controlled and almost calm at first, but with every second that passed, it grew more mocking and viciously triumphant, until it reverberated with pure, terrible eldritch power. **"Heh heh heh heh heh…heh HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…Ą̛͖̠̝̮̬̦ ҉͎̙̙̰͖͓̯̭H̙̖̟A̢͎̲ ̙͚͇̮̖̣̮̖͟HA͜҉͎͉͍͖͈͙ ͏̥̟H̨̢̜̹̮͟A̷̷̬͚̠̩̕ ̳͔͍̙̳͕̜HÀ̶̩̺̠̮͕ͅͅ ̖̱̗́͞H͢͏͎̻̣A̼̝̟̥̜̕ ͕̱͟ͅH̞̟͡A̛̗̣̝͍̮͖̭͞ͅ ͝҉̧̩̯̜̘̤͕̘̳H̱̳̟͟A̺̙̠̪͇̙ ̵̧͙̣H̡̧̛̞̰͉͔̣Ḁ̶̢̧͓̝̪ ̞͖̩̩̭͎̪̝̖̀͡H͖͚̟̗͈A͇͍͉̙̳͈̜̬͘͢͜!"**

Vicky's plushie collided into the gate, one last futile push to avoid its demise. The other ghost plushies all advanced to the edge of the gate, Zoe’s and Vera’s crashing into it, before Zoe’s plushie restored itself to life with a flash and pushed the others back…

…right into the jaws of the darkness.

“Our plushies!” Vicky wailed as the shadows devoured the last two rows, annihilating **every single plushie **except for Zoe’s. The ghostly plushies screamed in despair and terror as they were consumed by the darkness, a twisted reflection of how all the effort the monsters had put into the game had been reduced to nothing but failure and defeat. The monsters stared numbly at the darkness and the one untainted row at the very edge of the room, still trying to comprehend the fact that all of them except for Zoe had been wiped out of the game.

"**BIRDS OF A FEATHER…" **Oz hissed, **"̠̳̣̬̻̱͈̩͈͢.͇͔̭̗̯̖̣̕͝.̵̜͖̞̞̗͎̠̠͠.̵̸̯̜̰̝̭̺̻͓Ç̖̝͇̬̞͘A̰̻̘̫̥̠͜Ņ̩̣̠̙͎ ͖̮͔͜D̸̠IE̘̰̣̺̗̙͈̫̹̕ ̜̘͞͡T̖̭͕͚̱̺͕͕́Ǫ̞̤͓̩̭̣͘G̳̬̩̱̳̘͚͞E̤͙͕̪̯̬̳͍T̶̸̞̲͠H̻̥̭̞̫̥̳̯́͠E͏̪̱̺̻͙̻R̞͇͢͜͠.̢̭̪̼̥͙̺͎̻̟"̛̞̠̖̪̤̗̮ (...CAN DIE TOGETHER)**

The Darkness: 2 spaces away from the exit

By now, the opposite balcony and the space behind them was filled with Oz’s empowered and unleashed phobias, their laughter nearly reaching a fever pitch. Every could now clearly see the creatures that Oz commanded in all their dark glory, not the least of which was because more than a few of them were now merely _inches _away from where they were standing. Though they made no move to attack or even advance any closer, the intensity and malice in their gazes was more than enough to strike primal dread in even the most hardened and fearless among them. Even Zoe remained silent, her smile fading away and her thoughts on Oz’s creatures indecipherable to those around her. And it was this lack of familiarity and comfort, more than anything, that made the monsters especially nervous.

"**ONLY ONE REMAINS," **Oz’s eldritch voice growled mockingly. **"ONE LIGHT SURROUNDED BY SHADOWS. ONE LAST CHANCE TO ESCAPE. WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?"**

**_KAMA SUTRA _CHAPTERS**

About an Assortment of Bedroom Tools, On Personal Adornment, On the Various Ways of Lying Down

Zoe’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped open in shock. “O…M…G!” the eldritch cutie squealed, raising her hand and tentacle to her cheeks in delight. “Kama Sutra, the legendary book of sex tips from India? I LOVE THIS BOOK!”

“Wait, what?” Liam interrupted. “I’ve never heard of this book before! How did you even hear about it?”

“Polly showed me this book a few days ago,” Zoe explained excitedly. “It’s a book filled with sex tips and the philosophies behind them. She called it the best book she’s ever read!”

“POLLY of all people said that?” Damien asked incredulously, his shocked expression turning into a thoughtful one. “Fuck, maybe I should take a look at it. Hell, it might even be the first time I read a book without setting it on fire!”

Amira gave Vera a sly look. “I’m thinking we should take a trip to the library later,” she suggested with a smirk that was matched by her girlfriend.

**“Time’s running out…” **Oz interrupted warningly.

“You can do this, Zoe!” Vicky cheered, fully winning to support her friend now that winning was no longer possible for her.

“Beat your boyfriend at his own game!” Vera confidently added.

Zoe closed her many eyes and took a deep breath. After opening them again, she looked at the answer choices again with a clear and focused mind, and submitted her answers.

“It all comes down to this!” Brian declared.

XXXXXX, **On Personal Adornment, On the Various Ways of Lying Down**

Zoe: ✓✓✓

“Oh my God…” Zoe gasped, her jaw dropping open. “I did it…” Her mouth spread into a huge grin and her eyes lit up like stars. “I DID IT!” she squealed, lifting her tentacle and fist up to the air with delight. “I WON!”

Vera smiled at her. “Knew you could, sister,” she applauded with surprising gentleness.

“Hell yeah, girl!” Amira praised, high-fiving the eldritch cutie. “Great going!”

Liam smiled. “Well played, Zoe. You got the question you needed at the right time.”

Brian nodded in agreement. “There is no way I would’ve gotten that question right if I’d gotten it,” he admitted.

“WOOOO!” Vicky cheered as she hugged Zoe.

“Time to get the hell out of here!” Damien declared. The Zoe plushie charged at the gate, and this time, the imposing black gate lifted upward, allowing it to pass. The lone surviving plushie flew into the light at the exit and vanished, the light itself fading away as the hotel doors slammed shut. Immediately, the shadowy monsters and phobias stopped laughing and vanished back into the darkness, the glowing red eyes extinguishing themselves instantly without leaving any trace behind. The darkness covered the last few rows remaining, and the monsters suddenly found themselves back outside of the hotel. Bizarrely, the hotel itself was still in its ruined state from the explosion in the first round, even though the monsters could have sworn that they had gone through far more floors than they were currently seeing on the ruin.

Vera was the one who vocalized what everyone was thinking. “How did we go through seven floors if…”

**“BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!”**

The ruins of the hotel suddenly exploded, releasing the same terrible dark power that the last explosion had possessed. The explosion once again took on the form of a black and fiery demon’s head, a spectacle of dark glory that was every bit as awesome and terrifying as it had been the last time. When the unholy cloud of dark flame finally vanished, the ruins of the hotel were once again burning with the flames of Oz’s wrath, a show of destructive power that even stunned even Damien into silence.

“I’ve GOTTA learn how to do that,” the demon prince mumbled jealously.

High above the burning, broken ruins of the hotel, a big screen flickered to life. A newspaper clip appeared with the still-living Zoe plushie in the forefront. **“ZOE SURVIVES MURDEROUS TRIVIA GAME! ESCAPES HOTEL OF DOOM WITH $5000!**

"**Oh, and a bunch of other people died, but who gives a shit."**

“I still can’t believe it,” Liam mumbled, shaking his head as the screen vanished and another irreverent list of the dead plushies appeared. “I would’ve expected this kind of behavior from Damien, Vera, or even Amira, but from OZ of all people?”

Vicky: $5483. Cause of death: **fucked up at the finish line**

Brian: $5000. Cause of death: **drank a fuckton of water**

Vera: $4000. Cause of death: **got fucked by the loser wheel**

Liam: $4000. Cause of death: **predictable as fuck**

Amira: $3117. Cause of death: **shit at handling money**

Damien: $3050. Cause of death: **can’t hide thoughts for shit**

“Fuck you, Oz!” Damien retorted.

Zoe grinned. “I thought it was funny,” she commented.

“Of course YOU would,” Vera drawled, rolling her eyes. “You were the one who won.”

Damien looked back over the still-smoldering remains of the hotel. “Why did Oz even hide all this power and badassery to begin with?” he wondered. “If I’d known he could pull off this kind of shit from Day One, I’d never have called him a noob ever again!”

“That’s a question for the rest of his friends to answer,” Liam remarked. “They’ve known him much longer than we have.”

“Good point,” Vera acknowledged. She turned to face her fiery girlfriend. “Amira?”

Except Amira wasn’t there. Vera’s eyes widened in shock, and she looked around her. Seeing the astonished expression on her face, Zoe, Damien, and Liam looked around with increasing shock and worry to discover that they were alone in the darkness of Oz’s realm.

Amira, Brian, and Vicky…were gone.

/

A/N: CLIFFHANGER TIME! Because I’m so evil >:D

Only one more chapter left (because I honestly don’t think I could continue this fic much longer for multiple reasons). Can you guess what will happen next? I’ll give you a hint…look at the non-ship specific Polaroids.

Vicky and Zoe are two of my favorite characters, and it was a back-and-forth between the two for who would win. But in the end, I had to give it to our favorite eldritch cutie :D It was a hard won battle for sure though; Oz did NOT hold back punches with his questions.

Hope you guys enjoyed!


	6. One Final Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, folks. The last chapter, and I think I know the perfect way to wrap up a TMP fic. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my first fic in the world of Monster Prom, and I hope to write more in the future!
> 
> Full credit for the “TMP2 Credits Song” goes to Andy Poland and Mike Finney.

A/N: And here we are, folks. The last chapter, and I think I know the perfect way to wrap up a TMP fic. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my first fic in the world of Monster Prom, and I hope to write more in the future!

Full credit for the “TMP2 Credits Song” goes to Andy Poland and Mike Finney.

Chapter 6 – Color Squad’s Wild Side

“The FUCK?” Damien looked around frantically. “Vicky?” he called out. “Where the hell are you?”

“Where’d they go?” Vera demanded, trying her best to mask her own growing nervousness. “They were with us during the Final Round!”

“You don’t think they…got blown up in the explosion, did they?” Zoe asked worriedly.

Liam shook his head. “Impossible,” he insisted. “Oz has been friends with the Color Squad for years, far longer than we’ve known them. Killing them all wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Then what the fuck is going on?” Damien demanded.

Before anyone could answer, the haunting sound of music reached their ears, flowing like a soothing wave from the ruins of the hotel. A techno theme that permeated the air, a smooth yet commanding sound that immediately captivated their attention. The monsters were too stunned to do anything but stare back at the hotel as the sound of drumbeats broke through the techno cadence…

…and Oz’s voice, now smooth and charming despite the power still lingering in it, began to sing.

** _“Darkened highway, late at night,_**

**_I can’t keep driving, it don’t feel right._ **

** _I take the exit, just looking for a place to stay.”_ **

Everyone’s jaws dropped open in blank shock. In the already rare times they had seen the Color Squad perform in a rock band, Vicky had always been the one to sing while the others had jammed on various instruments. None of them had ever heard Oz sing before…and here he was now, still unseen in the shadows, singing unbelievably well with such an incredible voice.

** _“There’s only moonlight, the sky is black._ **

** _I’m really lost, but I can’t turn back._ **

** _What’s that ahead? A hotel with a vacancy?”_ **

“Look!” Vera pointed to the hotel, eyes wide. A stage was rising out of the ruins of the hotel, the top and the figures standing on it covered in shadows despite the flames writhing and flaring around the base of the ruins.

** _“Do I check in?_ **

** _Will I check out?_ **

** _There’s no-one near to hear me shout!”_ **

The flames roared upward, and a kaleidoscope of colored light finally broke apart the shadows. Standing on the stage was Oz, holding a microphone with the head fashioned in the shape of a skull in his hand. To his left and right were Amira and Vicky, both operating different tech machines and keyboards to create the techno music they had been hearing. Behind him, Brian hit a set of drums with a quiet but intense fervor, his brow furrowed in concentration as he hit out perfectly timed beats. Together, the rest of the Color Squad created the backbone of Oz’s song, creating a performance that, in the minds of Zoe, Vera, Liam, and Damien, surpassed even those of Monster Prom itself.

**_“Trivia Murder Party!” _**Oz sang out, putting his heart and soul into his song.

** _“And I’m filled with dread._ **

** _If I can’t answer these questions,_ **

** _I’m going to wake up dead.”_ **

** _“Trivia Murder Party!”_ **

** _“In this murder hotel,_ **

** _I thought this was a vacation,_ **

** _But it’s a trip to Hell.”_ **

Vicky grinned as her fingers played out a melodious tune, calming the fervor of the song and preparing Oz for the second verse. Damien watched his girlfriend like a lovestruck puppy as she expertly manipulated the keys, all brashness and bravado forgotten with the hidden romantic brought out in full. He might have loved arson and murder, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t appreciate the finer things in life as well. And Vicky wasn’t just his ideal girlfriend, but also an ever-present and welcome reminder that violence wasn’t the only thing he needed to care about in his life.

** _“I find my room, and I try to sleep,_ **

** _I say a prayer, my soul to keep,_ **

** _Next thing I know, my phone rings with a wake-up call!”_ **

Liam stared at Brian as he beat away at the drums. In the past, he would have considered rock and techno music to be crude and unrefined. But standing there now, witnessing the passion, determination, and furor with which the zombie tackled his instrument, the vampire suddenly realized that in that moment, he didn’t care. He didn’t care about countering the mainstream, or trying to act superior. The only truth that he cared about now was that his soulmate, and anything he put his heart into, was the definition of cool.

** _“Why’d I check in,_ **

** _Will I check out?_ **

** _There’s no-one near to hear me shout!”_ **

Black, shadowy tentacles sprouted from Oz’s back, writhing in the air frenziedly as his phobias also grew in size and strength. Zoe felt herself blush furiously; the last time Oz had shown her his tentacles, he had done so very reluctantly and with a lot of embarrassment. Now, he was freely and willingly releasing some of the restraints on his presence as he sang his heart out on the stage, and the only thing Zoe could think was that her boyfriend was the sexiest being she’d ever seen throughout her many eons of existence.

Even those not attracted to Oz looked just as stunned. “Since when the fuck did Oz have tentacles?” Damien mumbled.

**_“Trivia Murder Party!” _**Oz shouted, and this time many of his phobias joined in, adding their voices to his own.

** _“And I’m filled with dread._ **

** _If I can’t answer these questions,_ **

** _I’m going to wake up dead.”_ **

** **

** _“Trivia Murder Party!”_ **

** _“In this murder hotel,_ **

** _I thought this was a vacation,_ **

** _But it’s a trip to Hell.”_ **

Oz lowered the microphone, and as he did so one of his phobias departed from his body and flew towards Amira. The shadowy creature grinned at the fire djinn, who winked back as Oz spoke the next few words in what could only be described as a sexy baritone.

** _“Now I lay my clothes out before I sleep,_**

**_In the room, safe, my wallet I keep…”_ **

The empowered phobia took Amira’s place as she stepped away from the techno instrument, walking confidently forward. The monsters watching the performance tried to understand what was going on, but none so much as Vera, who was wondering what exactly her fiery girlfriend had planned.

** _“I hope I don't die before I wake_ **

** _I hear the continental breakfast has coffee cake.”_ **

Flames erupted in Amira’s hands, swirling together and conglomerating together to form an electric guitar decorated with orange flames and a skull for a head. Even before she had fully finished creating the guitar, Amira immediately started blasting a rocking guitar solo, her music pulsating through the dark realm like a wave a pure energy. Damien and Zoe both whooped and cheered, while Liam started bobbing his head up and down with a smile on his face. But none of the monsters were as delighted with Amira’s performance as Vera. Amira’s fiery and bold spirit was an aspect of her personality that the gorgon had initially ignored, but had come to appreciate more and more during Prom and in the days that had followed. And though her girlfriend was strong in many ways, the mastery with which she wielded her guitar was a pure, indomitable, and unique expression of Amira’s inner power. She was truly her equal, in love, in business, and pure coolness.

**_“Trivia Murder Party!”_ **Oz shouted triumphantly, the flames blazing upward from the ruins of the hotel below the stage.

** _“And I’m filled with dread._ **

**_I’ve got to keep my composure…”_ **Amira, Vicky, Brian, and even the phobias joined in,

** _“…Don’t wanna lose my head!_ **

** _Trivia Murder Party!_ **

** _In this murder hotel!_ **

** _I thought this was a vacation,_ **

** _But it’s a trip to Hell!”_ **

The lights blasted from the stage and the flames rose one final time as the four members of the Color Squad finished their song with a glorious flourish, all of Oz’s phobias and shadow creatures laughing maniacally in the background.

Damien, Liam, Vera, and Zoe abandoned all restraint and started cheering wildly and frenziedly as the flames faded and the stage started to lower, all of them shouting wild and sometimes outright incoherent expressions of adoration for the four monsters who had proved themselves to be so much cooler than any of them could have possibly dreamed. The stage barely reached the level of the ground when Zoe rushed at Oz, squealing with joy. The shadowy fearling barely had any time to let go of his microphone when Zoe wrapped her tentacle and arm around her boyfriend in a tight hug, her many mouths trying to kiss as much of him as possible at the same time.

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!!!!” the eldritch cutie babbled. “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I ALWAYS DREAMED IN MY FANFICS THAT YOU WERE AN AMAZING SINGER, AND NOW MY DREAM HAS COME TRUE!” She reached around Oz’s head and kissed him square on the mouth. “THIS IS THE BEST AU EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Oz chuckled nervously, looking every bit like the shy and adorable shadow boy he had been before he had brought them to his realm. “Yeah, I mean…people already knew I could play the guitar, but I never really showed that I could sing too.”

“You HAVE to teach me how to sing like that!” Zoe begged. “Please?”

Oz smiled and nodded. “Next week sound good?”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!” Zoe kissed Oz with her main mouth as the rest of the Color Squad went to reunite the rest of their loved ones.

“Such passion, such talent!” Liam praised Brian as he approached his boyfriend. The zombie lowered his head until it was level with the vampire’s, and the two gently pressed their foreheads together. Although they were more reserved in how they showed affection towards each other compared to the other couples around them, their love and respect for each other was no less deep. “Every time I think I’ve seen you at your best and brightest, Brian, you keep exceeding my expectations!”

Brian smiled. “There’s nobody who deserves to see my creative side more than you,” he replied gently.

Meanwhile, Damien and Vicky were kissing passionately a few feet away. “Oh. My. Fuck!” Damien exclaimed once the two of them reluctantly separated. “That was one of the most fucking beautiful things I’ve ever heard in my entire life! Fucking hell, with my hairstyling talents and your music skills, we’re fucking unstoppable! The ultimate king and queen of cool!”

Vicky giggled and leaned into Damien’s chest. “It’ll be an honor to rule by your side, my sexy demon king,” she purred seductively.

“I’ve got the hottest girlfriend in the entire school,” Damien declared happily as the two kissed again.

Meanwhile, Amira was bumping Vera’s fist, the gorgon gazing right into the fire djinn’s eyes with open admiration. “Wonderful,” Vera praised, her snakes positively purring with delight. “Absolutely wonderful. I honestly believed that you were being sidelined when you were on that techno board, and wondered why you were just sitting there in such a passive role. But when you brought out that guitar…” she blushed, “…that…might have just been the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. In more ways than one.”

Amira grinned and kissed Vera passionately on the forehead, the gorgon’s snakes trying to respond in turn with tiny smooches all over her face. “The hottest thing?” she asked suggestively. “I’ll show you the hottest thing the next time we’re…alone.”

Vera laughed. “I’ll hold you to that promise, Amira.”

“Everyone!” Oz’s voice interrupted them, and the monsters turned their attention to the eldritch feeling, Zoe clinging to his arm with a delighted smile on her face. “We’re going back to the house now. I’m kinda worn out and need a break.”

Vicky grinned and hugged her close friend since childhood. “Let’s give it up for Oz, guys!” she called. “For making one of the best games I’ve ever played even better!”

“GO OZ!” Zoe cheered, passionately kissing her boyfriend for the umpteenth time as the other monsters showed their approval and respect in their own unique ways. “Killer show host AND badass singer? I have so much fanart to draw and fanfics to write!”

“Wait a minute,” Liam interrupted. “What happened to your other personality?”

“Yeah!” Damien added with a grin. “That BOLD, give-no-fucks, absolute hardcore badass that fucked up plushies without even thinking about it? I mean, for fuck’s sake, if I’d known you were this much of a badass I’d have brought you along my crime sprees every single time!”

“I have to know,” Vera insisted, “which one is the real you? The shy, admittedly rather cute shadow boy, or the unstoppable eldritch being of darkness?”

The Color Squad and Zoe looked slyly at each other, smug and knowing grins stretching across their faces. “You’ll just have to find out yourself,” Oz answered, amusement flickering in his eyes as his phobias snickered at them.

Liam, Damien, and Vera all groaned as Oz snapped his fingers and opened up a portal leading back to their house. In truth, none of the three monsters had really paid all that much attention to the embodiment of fear, having focused most of their attention on the member of the Color Squad that had stolen their hearts and only tangentially acknowledging the rest of them as the close friends of their respective love interest.

But in just a few short moments, Oz had single-handedly shattered their impressions of him as a shy, unassuming, and uninteresting young man. Damien saw a hidden badass, waiting for the right moment to be unleashed. Liam saw an enticing enigma, whose powers and even his very nature were completely unfathomable, a mystery just begging to be solved. Vera saw one who wielded power and authority, with even a glimpse of his darker side enough to command respect even if he chose not to act on that power most of the time.

As for Zoe, the twisted game of murderous trivia that Oz had recreated had only reinforced her already unshakable belief that the eldritch fearling was the perfect boyfriend.

And even though their chosen loves would always be the ones to captivate their attention first and foremost, the four monsters couldn’t help but wonder…what other secrets were the Color Squad hiding from them? What other mysteries had yet to be revealed?

/

A/N: And that’s a wrap, folks! I decided to just end the fic here and not write another round, as I don’t think I would’ve been able to write a third round without boring both myself and the readers.

Oz would be the PERFECT person to sing the “TMP2 Credits Song”, and I will die on this hill.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this first foray of mine into the world of Monster Prom fanfic, and I hope you guys enjoyed!


End file.
